THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


sxC^" 

-"•  X>  ly-^*' 


FRONTISPIECE. 


INSECT  LIVES 


OR 


BORN   IN    PRISON 


BY 

JULIA  P.  BALLARD 


AUTHOB  OP    "BUILDING  STORIES,"    "SEVEN  YEARS    FROM  TO-NlGHT," 

"A  LITTLE  LIFE,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


CINCINNATI 

ROBERT  CLARKE  &  CO 

1879 


COPYRIGHTED 
ROBERT  CLARKE  &  CO 

1879 


(  L  -    -7  7 
63 

Bvc 


L 

PREFACE. 


How  shall  we  interest  children?  How  shall  we  most  interest  them? 
How  shall  we  best  interest  them  ? 

You  give  to  your  boy  a  glass  ball.  It  is  clear  and  beautiful.  He  can 
amuse  himself  with  it.  How?  Not  by  studying  it,  but  by  rolling  or 
catching  it.  Tell  him  to  put  the  ball  under  a  glass  cover  and  watch  it. 
Tell  him  to  wait  and  look  again  and  see  what  he  will  find.  "  Nothing," 
he  says,  "  but  a  ball."  He  is  right.  Man  made  it,  and  all  the  beauty  it 
will  ever  have  it  has  now.  Give  him  a  microscope.  What  does  he  see? 
A  little  coarser  texture,  perhaps  a  flaw,  a  bubble  of  confined  air,  but  only 
the  same  glass  ball.  Go  with  him  to  the  forest.  Pick  from  an  oak  branch 
a  plain  brown  ball.  Is  this  only  a  ball  ?  Put  it  under  a  glass.  Look 
again  and  you  will  find  it  is  more  than  a  ball.  It  is  a  home.  The  doors 
will  soon  open  and  the  family  disperse.  Watch.  There  goes  one  in  full 
dress  out  on  an  early  promenade.  With  what  ease  and  grace  it  walks 
up  and  down  its  prison  of  glass.  Another  follows.  There  is  a  large 
family  for  so  small  a  house.  Who  built  it  ?  Was  it  cast  in  a  mold  by  a 
man?  God  made  it,  and  all  the  beauty  it  has  is  not  seen  at  first.  Take 
the  microscope.  No  roughness  is  revealed,  no  flaw,  but  exquisite  beauty 
and  finish  in  every  part  of  the  house,  in  every  part  of  each  perfect  in- 
mate. Suppose  a  boy  could  buy  a  glass  ball  that  would  develop  such 
wonderful  secrets.  What  merchant  could  supply  the  market?  Aladdin's 
lamp  would  be  at  a  discount. 

You  give  your  girl  a  silk  "  beechnut-box."  Some  of  them  will  know 

00 


M345850 


6  PREFACE. 

what  I  mean :  a  three-sided  hox,  made  of  card-board  and  covered  and 
lined  with  silk,  such  as  only  grandmothers  can  probably  make  now. 
She  looks  at  it.  It  seems  solid.  Press  it  and  it  opens.  One  side  has 
been  left  without  being  closed.  What  can  she  do  with  it  ?  It  is  better 
.than  a  ball.  It  will  hold  something.  She  can  use  it.  But  the  box  itself, 
what  will  it  come  to  ?  Tell  her  to  put  the  box  under  a  glass  and  see  what 
it  will  get  to  be.  She  will  laugh  and  tell  you,  "  only  a  box."  All  there 
is  to  it  she  sees  at  once.  Try  the  microscope.  Only  a  little  coarser  silk. 

Here  is  a  green  "beechnut-box"  I  have  found  on  a  walnut  leaf.  It  is 
very  small — no  larger  than  a  beechnut  and  looking  much  like  a  green 
one.  Is  it  a  box  ?  Let  us  try  the  microscope.  It  is  embroidered  on  the 
sides  and  back.  There  are  small  patterns  in  diamonds  in  brown,  and 
drab.  While  you  look  it  moves.  Put  it  under  a  glass  and  watch.  Is  it  a 
home  ?  Put  a  bit  of  walnut  leaf  by  it.  What  is  that  moving  just  under 
one  of  the  pointed  ends?  It  is  a  head.  The  leaf  begins  to  disappear, 
the  owner  of  the  box,  the  Limacodes  scapha,  is  taking  his  breakfast. 

Which  will  you  prefer,  the  glass  ball  or  the  round  brown  house, 
the  silk  box  or  the  curious  living  thing  that  has  surprised  you  and 
holds  in  reserve  a  still  greater  surprise? 

It  is  with  the  hope  of  getting  this  question  answered  in  favor  of  liv- 
ing balls  and  boxes,  of  getting  the  key  into  the  hand  and  getting  the 
heart  ready  and  anxious  to  unlock  the  many  sources  of  beauty  and 
interest  which  God  has  placed  all  about  us  in  nature,  that  this  little 
volume  of  "INSECT  LIVES"  has  been  written.  That  we  may  learn  that 
while  "  it  is  the  glory  of  God  to  conceal  a  thing,"  He  is  not  only  witling 
we  should  search  out  these  hidden  wonders,  but  will  himself  be  glad 
in  our  new-found  delight  in  them. 

EASTON,  PA.,  October,  1879. 


CONTESTS. 


INTRODUCTORY... 9 


BORN  IN  PRISON 21 

II. 

GREEN  HOUSE  WITH  GOLD  NAILS 24 

III. 

Two  FRONT  DOORS 32 

IV. 
THE  EARLY  BUTTERFLY 39 

V. 
THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY 45 

VI. 

How  I   CAUGHT  A  BEAR 54 

VII. 

CRUMPLE-WING 57 

(vii) 


viii  CONTENTS. 

VIII. 
UNDER  THE  CAPE  .......................  .................................................     61 

IX. 
THE  ARCTIAN  AND  ICHNEUMON  ........................................................     64 

X. 
THE  WHITE  ERMINE  MOTH  .................................  ......  .  ....................     66 

XI. 
A  HUNTWIED  TO  ONE  ....................................................................     67 

XII. 
THE  UNFINISHED  LIFE  OF  QUAKER  GRAY  .........................................     72 

XIII. 
AN  EARLY  CECROPIAN  ..................................................................     75 


XIV. 
THE   ROSY  DRYOCAMPA  ..............................  .......  .  .........................     80 

XV. 
THE  SATURMA  lo  .........................................................................     85 

XVI. 
SILVER  GRAY...,  ,    93- 


Oh  look  thou  largely  with  lenient  eyes 
On  what  so  beside  thee  creeps  and  clings, 

For  the  possible  glory  that  underlies 

The  passing  phase  of  the  meanest  things." 

— Mrs.  Whitney. 

(v) 


H 

or  n  rote  on. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


I.  "I  know  you.  I  know  what  you  have 
been.  I  know  what  you  will  be."  This  it  is 
delightful  to  be  able  to  say  to  the  caterpillar 
crossing  your  path  slowly,  or  to  the  butterfly 
winging  its  way  in  the  air  before  you — to 
look  upon  the  common  brown  brush-like 
caterpillar,  with  black  at  each  end  of  him 

(9) 


1 0  INTR  OD  UCTOJR  Y. 

and  say:  "Plod  on  a  little  longer,  good  fellow,  and  you 
shall  'be  a  tiger  moth!"  or  upon  the  small  yellow  and 
white  butterfly,  and  say :  "  You,  a  little  while  ago,  were  a 
green  caterpillar,  making  holes  for  dear  life  through  a  cab- 
bage leaf! "  And  this  may  easily  be  accomplished  with  the 
aid  of  your  own  eyes  and  a  microscope,  and  also  (as  butter- 
flies and  caterpillars  do  not  go  flying  and  crawling  about 
labeled),  by  the  help  of  authors  who  have  studied  and  classi- 
fied them. 

"  But  how  shall  we  catch  the  butterflies  ?  With  a  net  ?  " 
IsTot  at  all.  That  may  do  very  well  if  you  care  for  noth- 
ing but  their  present  beauty;  but  if  you  wish  to  know  the 
butterfly  you  had  better  take  an  earlier  chapter  in  his  life. 
Of  course  the  first  thing  would  be  the  egg,  but,  as  these  are 
not  so  easily  found,  you  can  begin  with  the  caterpillar,  and 
in  due  time  you  will  come  round  to  the  egg,  and  so  have  the 
whole  at  command.  The  smaller  the  caterpillar  when  you 
get  him  the  better,  because  he  is  very  fond  of  changing  his 
coat,  and,  liking  a  variety,  is  apt  to  put  on  quite  a  different 
one  each  time.  Sometimes  the  second  coat  is  much  gayer 
than  the  first,  even  though  that  were  a  coat  of  many  colors. 
Caterpillars  usually  change  four  times  before  going  into  a 
chrysalis  state.  Some  butterfly  caterpillars  change  five  times 
(as  the  Papilio  philenor),  though  the  other  Papilios  of  the 
Northern  United  States  change  but  four,  and  some  have  but 
three  changes ;  so  that  one  who  has  never  noticed  them  care- 


INTRODUCTORY.  H 

fully  will  be  much,  surprised,  in  studying  them,  at  the  im- 
mense variety  in  shape  and  color,  and  also  the  great  beauty 
which  many  of  them  display. 

I  have  seen  more  elaborate  work  in  design  and  color,  in  a 
surface  less  than  an  inch  in  length,  and  in  width  no  more 
than  a  sixth  of  an  inch,  in  a  small,  unnoticed  caterpillar, 
than  I  have  ever  seen  in  as  much  surface  on  any  flower. 
And  the  microscope  reveals  here  often  an  amazing  amount  of 
work  and  beauty  little  suspected  without  its  aid. 

"While  some  caterpillars  are  hairy,  and  look  like  a  little 
traveling  clothes  brush,  others  are  knobbed,  or  spiny,  like  the 
porcupine,  and  others  quite  smooth.  Some  are  handsomely 
dressed  in  scarlet  and  gold,  with  tufts  of  various  colors 
grouped  upon  their  bodies ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
some  of  the  gayest  and  handsomest  make  the  very  dullest 
and  homeliest  moths.  They  have  always  twelve  rings,  called 
segments,  besides  a  shelly  head,  and  from  ten  to  sixteen  legs. 
They  have  a  little  conical  tube  or  spinneret  in  the  center  of 
the  upper  lip,  from  which  they  spin  the  silk  for  their  co- 
coons, or  draw  the  silken  thread,  which  some  use  instead, 
to  fasten  themselves  with  when  changing  into  chrysalids. 
The  change  from  one  coat  to  another  is  something  curious, 
but  not  much  in  comparison  to  the  change  from  the  cater- 
pillar to  the  butterfly  through  the  chrysalis  state.  Here  the 
form  is  entirely  altered.  The  mouth  and  manner  of  eating 
and  kind  of  food  are  totally  different. 


12  INTRODUCTORY. 

II.  "But  how  can  I  touch  the  caterpillars  when  I  wish 
to  get  them?" 

Do  not  touch  them  at  all.  Take  a  little  box,  and  when 
you  see  one,  with  a  pencil  or  stick  gently  push  him  into 
it,  and  carry  him  home.  Get  some  plain  glass  tumblers,  the 
larger  the  better.  You  can  begin  with  one  or  two,  but  you 
will  soon  want  a  dozen.  Put  your  caterpillar  upon  a  white 
paper,  which  you  have  first  placed  on  an  old  book,  or  other 
firm  substance,  and  cover  him  with  the  glass.  If  you  have 
several  kinds  at  once,  it  is  well  to  label  the  glasses.  Write 
"  Grape,"  or  "Apple,"  or  "  Poplar,"  upon  a  slip  of  paper,  and 
paste  it  upon  the  tumbler  which  covers  the  caterpillar  you 
found  upon  the  grape,  apple,  poplar,  or  other  leaf.  This 
will  avoid  confusion,  as  they  one  by  one  go  into  chrysalids. 
You  can  study  each  one  separately,  and  you  will  know,  as 
they  come  out  of  the  chrysalids  (which  you  have  seen  them 
make),  just  which  is  the  moth  of  the  grape,  apple,  or  what- 
ever your  label  indicates  should  be  there.  This  you  would 
forget  more  easily  than  one  would  suppose.  You  will  thus 
know,  also,  at  a  moment's  glance,  how  to  feed  them  ;  as 
each  caterpillar  requires  to  be  fed  with  whatever  kind  of 
leaf  you  found  him  upon.  If  upon  the  grape,  give  him 
grape  leaves  under  the  grape  tumbler,  and  so  on.  You 
will  soon  begin  to  respect  your  caterpillar,  and  wonder  at 
one  thing  at  least  about  him,  and  that  is,  his  power  of 
selection.  While  there  are  a  few,  such  as  the  common  salt- 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

marsh  caterpillar,  that  will  eat  several  things,  as  clover, 
'plantain,  and  grass,  the  most  of  them  (at  least  so  far  as  I 
have  tried  them)  will  condescend  to  do  nothing  of  the  kind. 
They  know  what  they  want,  and  that  is  more  than  can  be 
said  of  some  people.  There  is  one  kind  of  small  caterpillar 
often  found  on  the  grape,  and  also  on  several  other  trees, 
which,  although  it  prefers  grape,  will  eat  other  leaves ;  but 
there  are  certain  ones  peculiar  to  the  grape,  and  you  may 
try  one  of  these  grape  caterpillars  with  every  other  leaf  of 
the  garden,  and  he  will  turn  away  with  disgust.  Give  him 
a  grape  leaf,  and  you  are  paid  for  your  trouble  at  once. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  you  will  find  a  caterpillar  far 
from  any  tree  or  plant.  Then  you  can  practice  with  him, 
and  if  you  can  not  find  out  from  a  book  what  he  is,  and 
what  he  should  have,  and  fail  to  suit  him  with  any  variety 
of  leaf  at  your  command,  you  must  either  let  him  go,  or 
see  him  die ! 

III.  If  you  have  very  large  caterpillars,  such  as  the  elm,  or 
royal  walnut,  or  that  of  the  Polyphemus  moth,  it  is  easy  to 
make  a  glass  box  (bound  with  narrow  ribbon,  and  fastened 
at  the  corners),  perhaps  eight  inches  square  and  six  or  eight 
high,  or  a  box  covered  with  wire  gauze.  Such  a  box  is  better 
than  the  round  shades  which  you  could  buy,  for  you  can 
watch  the  insect  much  better  through  them,  and  see  it  with- 
ort  distortion.  It  also  admits  some  air,  which  they  require 
in  order  to  do  well.  It  is  needed  for  the  large  moths  also, 


14  INTRODUCTORY. 

which,  under  a  tumbler,  could  not  expand  their  wings  per- 
fectly, much  less  make  any  use  of  them.  Here  you  can 
watch  the  caterpillar  dextrously  fasten  himself  to  the  side  of 
the  glass,  and  change  his  coat  once,  twice,  three,  or  four  times, 
•coming  out  each  time  fresh  and  bright,  and  with  a  keen  ap- 
petite after  the  stupid  supperless  days  each  change  costs  him. 
'You  can  see  him  spin  his  cocoon  with  such  a  wonderful  skill 
that  you  look  with  amazement  at  the  work;  or,  if  he  changes 
into  a  smooth  chrysalis  (as  the  Asterias  butterfly),  you  can 
see  him  fasten  the  loop  around  his  breast,  which  attaches  him 
to  the  glass  strongly  enough  to  keep  him  in  one  position 
(either  through  a  long  or  a  short  sleep),  and  at  last  stand  the 
tug  of  opening  for  the  escape  of  the  butterfly.  Besides  this, 
If  they  are  under  glass,  they  are  safe,  and  you  too  are  safe  in 
your  knowledge  of  them.  You  know  that  whatever  living 
thing  is  found  under  your  glass  when  the  chrysalis  opens  must 
have  come  out  of  that  chrysalis,  whether  legitimately  or  not. 
The  first  Ichneumon  fly  I  ever  examined  would  have  been 
brushed  unceremoniously  out  of  the  window  for  a  wasp,  had 
he  stolen  out  from  an  unguarded  chrysalis.  But,  as  he  was 
born  in  prison,  there  he  was.  He  came  out  of  that  chrysalis, 
and  wasp  or  what  not,  he  must  be  studied,  and  lo !  the  curious 
parasite  was  brought  to  light.  Revelations  of  this  kind  will 
sometimes  be  made,  which  one  would  be  slow  to  believe  pos- 
sible, but  for  there  being,  in  this  way,  no  possible  room  for 
doubt.  I  have  had  two  caterpillars,  for  example,  which  were 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

just  alike,  spin  each  a  cocoon  exactly  alike,  each  being 
under  a  glass  of  its  own  and  labeled.  After  a  time, 
on  cutting  open  the  cocoon  carefully,  so  as  not  to  injure 
the  chrysalis  (which  may  be  easily  done),  one  cocoon  was 
found  to  contain  a  perfect  chrysalis.  The  other  contained 
the  dead  caterpillar  and  four  rather  small  oval  chrysalids. 
Fiually,  the  one  perfect  chrysalis  opened  for  the  escape  of  a 
moth  (Apatela  americana)9Sind  the  other  four  small  chrysalids 
opened,  and  lo !  six  large  flies,  much  resembling  the  house  fly, 
only  more  spiny  or  hairy.  There  must  have  been  two  flies 
in  two  of  the  cocoons,  as  there  were  certainly  two  extra  ones 
under  the  glass ! 

IV.  The  immense  variety  of  caterpillars,  and  the  great  dif- 
ference in  their  habits,  and  in  their  new  and  finished  life  as 
moth  or  butterfly,  furnishes  constant  surprise  and  pleasure  in 
their  study.  From  egg  to  imago  (which  means  the  perfect 
insect  or  butterfly)  they  are  a  study  which  can  not  fail  to 
excite  wonder,  and  lead  us,  from  admiration  of  their  beauty 
and  skill,  to  adoration  of  Him  whose  work  is  perfect  though 
invisible,  and  whose  ways,  studied  never  so  closely,  are  still 
"  past  finding  out." 

To  render  our  researches  most  effectual  and  satisfactory,  we 
should  not  begin  with  statistics — studying  how  many  thou- 
sands of  moths  and  butterflies  there  are  supposed  to  be,  or 
how  many  species  of  insects  have  been  classified  and  named. 
Take  "  one  to  begin,"  as  children  say,  and  study  it  thor- 


16  INTRODUCTORY. 

oughly.  From  books  such  as  those  of  Edwards,  Harris,  Pack- 
ard, or  Tenney,  find  the  name  of  your  caterpillar,  and  know, 
before  he  changes,  what  sort  of  butterfly  you  are  to  have ; 
unless  you  are  fortunate  enough  to  find  one  not  described,  and 
then  you  can  have  the  honor  of  naming  him  .yourself.  In 
this  way  the  more  scientific  knowledge  to  be  obtained  from 
books  you  will  soon  find  it  impossible  to  do  without.  You 
will  find  that  while  it  is  pleasant  to  be  sent  from  books  to  na- 
ture, it  is  more  pleasant  to  find  out  secrets  from  nature,  and 
let  her  send  you  to  the  books  to  verify  them. 

V.  But  there  are  a  few  things  you  should  know  from  books 
before  you  begin,  and  one  is,  that  the  whole  class  of  butter- 
flies and  moths  is  called  LEPIDOPTERA;  and  that  this  class 
contains  only  Butterflies,  Moths,  and  Hawk-Moths.  Flies, 
beetles,  and  other  insects  come  under  different  classes. 

The  Butterflies  have  delicate  thread-like  antennae,  and  these 
are  always  knobbed  or  thickened  at  the  end.  They  always 
fly  by  day,  and  their  caterpillars  have  sixteen  legs — six  small 
tapering-jointed  ones  (which  are  the  true  feet)  from  the  first 
three  rings  back  of  the  head,  and  a  pair  of  larger  and  more 
fleshy  legs  to  each  of  the  other  segments  except  the  fourth, 
fifth,  tenth,  and  eleventh. 

The  Hawk-Moths  have  long  narrow  wings,  and  some  of 
them  look  very  much  like  little  hummingbirds.  Their  an- 
tennse  are  tapering  (usually  broader  in  the  middle),  and 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

never  knobbed.     They  fly  rarely  during  the  day,  but  mostly 
in  the  morning  and  evening  twilight. 

The  Moths  have  not  narrow  wings.  Their  antennae  are 
not  knobbed  but  usually  taper  from  base  to  tip,  and  are  not 
broader  in  the  middle  like  those  of  hawk-moths.  Some  of 
them  are  spined  and  some  plumed.  They  fly  at  night  chiefly. 
80  you  can  always  tell  a  butterfly  from  a  moth  by  the  an- 
tennee,  and  a  hawk-moth  from  a  moth  by  its  wings. 

The  eggs  are  very  different  in  size,  shape,  and  color.  Some 
are  clear  and  round  like  little  crystal  beads,  and  formed  on  a 
leaf  in  a  close  circle.  Sometimes  they  are  in  exact  rows  and 
of  an  amber  color.  Again,  like  those  of  the  Polyphemus 
moth,  they  are  chocolate  colored,  circular,  flat,  and  quite 
large.  The  eggs  of  this  moth  are  shaped  like  biscuit,  and 
have  two  white  rings  around  the  edge.  Some  eggs  now  be- 
fore me,  found  to-day  in  a  walk  to  the  woods,  and  unknown 
to  me,  are  white,  as  if  made  of  milk  glass.  They  are  on  a 
large  forest  leaf,  and  there  are  just  ninety-one  of  them,  and 
yet  I  could  cover  the  whole  with  a  thimble.  They  look  like 
plain  u  chalk  beads,"  and  may  be  easily  counted  with  the  naked 
eye,  but  look  at  them  through  a  microscope,  and  their  ex- 
quisite beauty  appears.  They  are  all  precisely  alike, 
having  sixteen  or  eighteen  symmetrical  grooves 
diverging  from  a  small  circle  in  the  center  like  this: 

And  what  is  more  wonderful  than  the  finish  of  the  egg,  is, 
that  the  different  kinds  of  eggs  are  always  placed  upon  that 


18  INTRODUCTORY. 

kind  of  leaf,  which,  when  the  caterpillar  is  hatched,  he  will 
at  once  prefer  to  eat,  except,  of  course,  those  you  may  have 
in  your  box,  or  under  your  tumbler,  and  then  you  will  know 
what  to  feed  them.  But,  as  I  said,  the  best  way  is  to  begin 
with  the  caterpillars,  as  you  will  seldom  find  the  eggs  in  any 
other  way,  or  have  success  in  raising  such,  if  you  should. 

VI.  How  to  kill  a  moth  or  butterfly.  Butterflies  and  moths- 
having  so  much  vitality,  it  has  been  a  puzzle  how  to  kill 
them  without  injuring  the  delicate  texture  of  their  wings  and 
without  pain.  A  sure  and  easy  way  is  the  following : 

Take  a  glass  jar  with  large  mouth  and  close  lid  (a  candy 
jar,  six  inches  high  and  four  inches  diameter,  with  glass 
cover  shutting  over  a  rubber  band  is  good),  into  which  put 
four  or  five  lumps  of  cyanide  of  potassium  about  the  size  of 
a  hickory-nut.  Dissolve  enough  plaster  of  Paris  in  water  to 
cover  the  cyanide  evenly  over,  forming  a  hard  smooth  sur- 
face. Put  the  moth  into  the  jar,  close  the  lid  and  let  it  re- 
main five  or  six  hours,  after  which  it  can  be  taken  out  and 
mounted. 

Have  a  board  (smoothly  planed)  with  a  groove  the  size,  in* 
length  and  width,  of  the  body  of  the  moth.  Place  it  upon 
the  board  with  the  body  in  the  groove;  spread  the  wings 
evenly,  and  confine  them  by  strips  of  paper  placed  across  so 
as  to  hold  the  border  of  each  wing.  Take  off  the  papers  the 
next  day,  and  with  a  pin  through  the  thorax,  fasten  it  to  the 
cork  gummed  upon  the  box  in  which  you  place  it. 


The  velvet  nap  which  on  his  wings  doth  lie, 
The  silken  down  with  which  his  back  is  dight, 
His  broad  outstretched  horns,  his  hairy  thighs, 
His  glistening  colors  and  his  glorious  eyes." 

—Spenser. 


BORN  IN  PRISON.  21 


I. 


BORN   IN  PRISON. 

I  AM  only  a  day  old !  I  wonder  if  every  butterfly  comes 
into  the  world  to  find  such  queer  things  about  him  ?  I  was 
born  in  prison.  I  can  see  right  through  my  walls;  but  I 
ca  n't  find  any  door.  Right  below  me  (for  1  have  climbed 
up  the  wall)  lies  a  queer-looking,  empty  box.  It  is  clear, 
and  a  pale  green.  It  is  all  in  one  piece,  only  a  little  slit  in 
the  top.  I  wonder  what  came  out  of  it.  Close  by  it  there 
is  another  green  box,  long  and  narrow,  but  not  empty,  and 
no  slit  in  the  top.  I  wonder  what  is  in  it.  Near  it  is  a 
smooth,  green  caterpillar,  crawling  on  the  edge  of  a  bit  of 
cabbage-leaf.  I  'm  afraid  that  bright  light  has  hurt  my  eyes. 
It  was  just  outside  of  my  prison  wall,  and  bright  as  the  sun. 
The  first  thing  I  remember,  even  before  my  wings  had 
opened  wide,  or  I  was  half  through  stretching  my  feet  ta 
see  if  I  could  use  them  in  climbing,  there  was  a  great  eye 
looking  at  me.  Something  round  was  before  it,  with  a  han- 
dle. I  suppose  it  was  a  quizzing-glass  to  see  what  I  was 
about.  I  heard  somebody  say,  "  Oh  !  oh !  "  twice,  just  as 
if  they  wondered  I  was  here.  Then  they  held  the  great 


22  INSECT  LIVES. 

bright  light  close  to  the  wall,  till  my  eyes  were  dazzled. 
I  do  n't  like  this  prison.  It  is  n't  worth  while  to  fly  about. 
It  seems  as  if  I  ought  to  have  more  room.  There  must 
be  something'  inside  that  green  box.  It  moves !  I  saw  it 
half  tip  over  then,  all  of  itself.  I  believe  that  caterpillar 
is  afraid  of  it.  He  creeps  off  slowly  toward  the  wall.  How 
smooth  and  green  he  is!  How  his  rings  move  when  he 
crawls !  Now  he  has  gone  up  the  wall.  He  has  stopped 
near  the  roof.  How  he  throws  his  head  from  side  to  side! 
He  is  growing  broader !  He  looks  just  as  if  he  was  turn- 
ing into  one  of  these  green  boxes!  How  that  box  shakes! 


FIG.  3. 


There,  I  see  it  begin  to  open !  There  is  a  slit  coming  in 
the  back!  Something  peeps  out!  A  butterfly's  head,  I 
declare!  Here  it  comes  —  two  long  feelers,  two  short  ones! 
Four  wings,  two  round  spots  on  each  of  the  upper  pair,  and 


BORN  IN  PRISON.  23 

none  on  the  other  two.  Dressed  just  like  me.  I  wonder  why 
it  hid  away  in  that  box  ? 

First  Butterfly. — "What  made  you  hide  in  that  green 
box?" 

Second  Butterfly. — "What  box  ?  I  have  n't  hid  anywhere. 
I  don't  know  what  box  you  mean." 

First  Butterfly. — "  That  one.  You  just  crawled  out  of  it. 
I  saw  you." 

Second  Butterfly.—"  That 's  the  first  I  knew  of  it.  There 
are  two  boxes,  just  alike.  Both  empty.  May  be  you  were 
hid  in  the  other!" 

First  Butterfly. — "  Ho  !  There  goes  up  our  prison  wall ! 
That's  the  big  hand  that  held  the  bright  light.  How  good 
the  air  feels !  Now  for  a  chance  to  try  our  wings !  Away 
we  go ! " 


24  INSECT  LIVES. 


II. 


THE   GREEN   HOUSE   WITH   GOLD   NAILS. 

THERE  is  a  very  pretty  caterpillar  which  lives  upon  the 
common  inilk-weed,  or  asclepias,  which  grows  by  the  road- 
side, with  pinkish  clusters  of  flowers  in  summer,  and  curious 
bird-shaped  pods  in  the  fall.  This  caterpillar  (whose  name 
is  Danais  archippus — we  might  call  him  Archie,  for  short,)  is 
very  pretty,  and  the  butterfly  is  handsome ;  but  the  crown- 
ing beauty  of  all  is  the  chrysalis.  It  looks  like  a  little  green 
house,  put  together  with  gold  nails.  It  is  somewhat  of  the 
size  and  shape  of  a  long,  delicate  pea-green  acorn,  and  has  a 
row  of  dots  half  way  around  what  would  be  the  saucer  of 
the  acorn,  with  others  about  the  size  of  a  pin's  head  on 
different  parts  of  the  chrysalis,  and  you  will  say  they  are 
not  like  gold,  but  are  real  gold  itself. 

The  caterpillar,  when  full-grown,  is  about  two  inches 
long.  It  is  cylindrical,  and  handsomely  marked,  when 
mature,  with  narrow  alternating  bands  of  black,  white,  and 
lemon  yellow.  These  bands  are  not  entirely  even,  and  oc- 
casionally run  into  each  other.  On  the  top  of  the  second 
ring,  or  segment,  are  two  slender,  black,  thread-like  hornsr 


THE  GREEN  HOUSE  WITH  GOLD  NAILS.  25 

and  on  a  hind  ring  two  more,  not  quite  so  long  as  those 


FIG.  4. 

near  the  head.  You  can  find  it  almost  any  day  in  July  or 
August,  if  you  look  closely,  on  the  under  side  of  the  broad 
ovate-elliptical  leaves  of  the  milk-weed.  When  this  cater- 
pillar first  leaves  its  conical,  reticulated  egg 
(which  is  always  found  on  the  under  side 
of  the  leaf,  a  miniature  hanging-basket, 
first  yellow  and  then  gray,  as  it  devel- 
opes),  it  is  perfectly  cylindrical,  and  of 
nearly  the  same  size  throughout,  and  only 
twelve  one-hundredths  of  an  inch  in  length. 
In  this,  its  first  coat,  it  is  a  pale,  greenish  AN  EGG,  MAGNIFIED. 
white,  and  the  horns  (front  and  back)  FIG.  5. 

are  mere  conical  points,  and  it  is  covered  with  little 
black  hairs  or  bristles,  from  minute  warts  on  the  back 
and  sides.  The  breathing  holes,  or  stigmata,  show  on 
each  side,  marked  by  a  plain,  narrow  band.  In  the  next 
coat,  which  it  puts  on  in  a  few  days,  the  black  stripes 
appear,  and  also  faint  lines  of  white  and  yellow,  and  the 


26 


INSECT  LIVES. 


horns  are  longer.  The  third  and  last  coat  (before  the  final 
change  to  the  chrysalis)  is  much  the  same,  except  that  all 
the  colors  are  brighter.  The  horns  are  shed  with  the  skin, 
new  ones  having  been  formed  beneath  to  take  their  place. 
These  have  been  so  carefully  folded  away  that  at  first 
they  scarcely  appear;  but  they  are  soon  developed,  or  un- 
curled, and  unbend  so  suddenly  as  almost  to  surprise  one. 
When  the  caterpillar  is  ready  to  make  its  change  into 
the  chrysalis,  it  spins  a  little  tuft  or  button 
of  silk  to  the  under  side  of  the  leaf  (or 
the  box-cover,  if  in  prison),  into  which  it 
fastens  its  hind  legs,  by  their  little  hooks, 
then  lets  go  the  hold  of  its  other  legs, 
and  hangs,  head  downward,  with  the  body 
curved,  as  in  Fig.  6. 

In  this  position  it  remains  about  twenty-four 
hours  when  the  marvelous  change  is  wrought — 
the  coat  thrown  off  and  the  chrysalis  developed. 
It  was  the  accidental  finding  of  his  chrysalis, 
attached  to  a  spray  of  wild  carrot,  that  led  me  to 
study  this  particular  species.  It  was  a  secret  to 
me — this  beautiful  green  and  gold  house.  It 
FlG  7  held  something.  What,  I  must  know !  Cutting 
the  stem  of  the  carrot,  I  brought  the  treasure  carefully  into 
the  house,  covered  it  with  a  tumbler,  and  for  a  week  it  re- 
mained just  the  same.  Then  the  green  began  to  turn  to  a 


THE  GEEEN  HOUSE  WITH  GOLD  NAILS.  27 

light  purple,  and  lines  began  to  show  through  the  clear  case. 
The  front  showed  lines  like  a  curtain,  parted  and  folded  back 
each  way,  like  drapery,  to  the  bottom,  as  shown  in  Fig.  8. 
The  back  was  curiously  marked  off,  and  looked  like  Fig.  9. 
The  whole  gradually  took  on  a  very  dark  purple  hue,  and  I 
hoped  to  see  it  open  and  give  up  its  treasure.  But  though  I 
watched  very  carefully,  it  stole  a  march  on  me,  and  one  morn- 
ing I  found  its  secret  disclosed  and  fluttering  below  the  empty 
chrysalis,  now  but  a  clear,  rent  tissue,  with  here  and  there  a 
pale  gold  dot. 


FIG.  8.  FIG.  9. 

The  butterfly  is  handsome  and  quite  large  (more  than  three 
inches  across  when  the  wings  are  spread),  but  not  quite  so 
beautiful  as  you  would  infer  from  his  elegant  house.  He  is  of 
a  rich  tawny  orange,  bordered  with  velvety  black,  on  the 
upper  side,  and  a  lighter  nankeen  yellow  below ;  and  has  a 
large  velvety  black  head,  spotted  with  white. 

As  I  did  not  know  how  large  he  would  be,  nor  when  he 


28  INSECT  LIVES. 

would  come  out — for  he  did  not  invite  me,  as  I  said,  to  his 
"  opening," — I  had  not  given  him  a  glass  roomy  enough  for 
his  wings  to  expand  entirely  at  the  first,  as  they  must,  or  re- 
main imperfect.  So  afterward,  although  he  had  the  liberty 
of  the  whole  room,  he  walked  about  with  one  wing  folded 
back  over  his  shoulder,  like  a  lady's  opera-cloak.  But  I  kept 
him,  and,  learning  that  he  came  from  the  milk-weed  cater- 
pillar, I  went  in  quest  of  one.  I  wras  fortunate  enough  to 
find  five  in  one  search — three  on  one  milk- weed,  and  two  on 
another.  I  put  them  in  a  glass  fernery,  about  one  foot  long 
and  ten  inches  high,  and  fed  them  with  fresh  milk-weed 
leaves  daily.  Soon  they  mounted,  one  after  another,  to  the 
top,  and  began  to  work  on  the  under  side  of  the  glass  cover, 
My  curiosity  was  on  the  alert  to  see  how  each  would  build 
his  green  house.  I  had  seen  cocoons  of  various  kinds  spun, 
but  the  glass-smooth  chrysalis  could  not  be  spun.  Oh,  no  !  It 
was  altogether  too  nice  work  to  be  done  in  sight.  There 
was  no  sound  of  hammer  or  sight  of  tools.  It  was  all 
polished  and  painted  and  ready — and  lo  !  the  inner  layers  of 
the  caterpillar's  skin  had  been  the  work-shop,  and  the  outer 
skin  was  taken  down  and  discarded,  like  worthless  scaflbld- 
ing,  when  the  green  and  gold  house  was  ready.  Pretty  soon 
there  were  five  of  these  houses  hanging  from  the  glass  roof,, 
side  by  side ;  and  now  there  are  five  empty  homes,  still  cling- 
ing by  the  little  shiny  black  twist  that  fastens  them  firmly 
to  the  glass,  and  five  handsome  great  butterflies,  like  the  one- 


THE  GREEN  HOUSE  WITH  GOLD  NAILS. 


29 


shown  in  Fig.  10.  Only  one  of  all  these  did  I  see  break 
the  shell  and  come  out,  and  that  only  by  the  most  diligent 
watching.  The  butterfly  was  packed,  head  downward,  at  the 
bottom  of  the  chrysalis — wonderfully  packed,  as  all  will  ad- 
mit who  see  him  emerge,  to  shake  himself  out  into  something 
five  or  six  times  as  wide,  a  beautiful  uncramped  butterfly. 


FIG.  10. 

After  seeing  them  brighten  a  bouquet,  and  watching  them 
eat  with  their  long  spiral  tongues  from  a  little  bed  of  moss 
sprinkled  with  sweetened  water,  I  let  them  take  a  nap  under 
a  tumbler  with  a  little  pillow  of  chloroformed  cotton,  and, 
unmarred  even  by  a  pin,  they  were  ready  to  be  laid  away  in 
a  glass-covered  box  in  their  long,  dreamless  sleep. 


30  INSECT  LIVES. 

It  has  been  said  by  some  entomologist  that  each  plant  is 
visited  by  about  five  different  insects.  This  year  (1877)  1 
have  searched  in  vain  on  the  milkweed  for  the  large,  hand- 
some caterpillar  of  the  Danais  archippus.  That  there  must 
have  been  a  few,  the  occasional  presence  of  the  Danais  butter- 
fly has  proved.  Two  were  seen  in  Massachusetts,  flitting 
gaily  past  me  as  if  in  mockery  of  a  long  and  futile  search  I 
had  just  made  for  the  caterpillar  among  a  whole  tract  of 
milkweed ;  one  in  Brooklyn,  and  one  or  two  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, but  they  were  exceedingly  rare.  The  eggs  were  probably 
destroyed  by  spiders  and  other  insects,  but  why  to  so  much 
greater  extent  than  the  previous  year  is  not  so  readily  ex- 
plained. 

The  only  caterpillar  (and  that  ver}^  abundant)  which  seems 
to  have  lived  upon  the  milkweed  this  year,  and  found  upon 
the  same  spot  where  the  Danais  caterpillars  were  so  readily 
obtained  last  year — sometimes  half  a  dozen  upon  one  plant — 
is  a  small  one  in  comparison  to  that  of  the  Danais,  of  a  soft, 
woolly  appearance,  orange-red  in  color,  and  about  an  inch  in 
length,  with  hairs  thickly  set  in  starry  clusters  about  each 
fleshy  ring.  Three  of  these  abundant  orange-red  caterpillars 
have  gone  into  a  shiny-brown  chrysalis  and  come  out,  after  a 
three  weeks'  sleep,  into  lavender-colored  moths,  perhaps  an 
inch  and  a  half  across  the  expanded  wings,  the  wings  edged 
with  a  narrow  orange  border.  They  wrere  "  traveled  "  cater- 
pillars, going  in  a  box  as  chrysalids  from  Pennsylvania  to 


TWO  FRON'T  DOORS,  ETC.  31 

Massachusetts,  coming  out  there,  and  traveling  back  as  qui- 
etly as  if  long  journeys  were  a  matter  of  course.  A  second 
set  of  caterpillars  of  the  same  kind  appeared  in  August, 
some  of  which  are  now  (September)  in  their  chrysalid  homes. 
They  made  from  their  woolly,  downy  hairs  (more  soft  than 
those  of  any  other  caterpillar  I  have  seen)  a  soft  cocoon  like 
loose  felt,  and  these  four  have  gone  up  in  pairs,  two  chrysa- 
lids  in  each  thin  cocoon.  This  little  lavender  moth  is  neat 
and  quite  pretty,  but  not  to  be  compared  for  beauty  to  the 
Danais  archippus. 


32  INSECT  LI  VES. 


III. 
TWO   FRONT   DOORS,  AND   WHAT   WAS   BEHIND   THEM. 

A  BUTTERFLY  in  March !  Velvety  black,  with  wings 
bordered  with  a  double  row  of  yellow  spots,  and  the  hinder 
wings  tailed,  having  also  the  added  ornament  of  seven  blue 
spots  (a  nebula  of  dotted  blue  points,  with  a  frosted  sil- 
very sheen  making  each  spot).  He  is  the  Papilio  asterias. 
You  have  seen  him  in  May,  June,  or  July,  hovering  over 
a  bed  of  phlox  or  other  sweet  flowers;  but  unless  you 
caught  him  "in  the  bud,"  or,  of  course,  when  a  caterpillar, 
you  would  not  have  him  in  middle  March. 


FIG.  11. 
CATERPILLAR. 


The  sole  occupant  of  a  glass  fernery,  sipping  from  sugar- 
sprinkled  moss  with  his  long,  uncoiled  tongue,  he  seems 
quite  at  home,  and  sees  nothing  of  the  snow  now  wrhiten-. 
ing  every  branch  and  tiny  shrub  —  knows  nothing  of  the 


TWO  FRONT  DOORS,  ETC.  33 

" April-fool,"  which,  as  Susan  Coolidge  says,  spring  throws 
to  the  flowers  outside  —  the  daring  crocus  and  daffodil. 
With  his  moss,  and  some  fresh  snowdrops  in  a  vase, 
standing  in  his  glass  house  for  dessert  —  an  extra  drop  of 
sweetened  water  in  their  pure  cups  —  he  is  monarch  of  his 
little  world. 


FIG.  12. 

As  a  caterpillar,  he  was  handsome,  At  first  a  tiny  black 
caterpillar,  with  a  white  stripe  running  through  the  center 
of  the  body  and  across  the  tail,  and  covered  with  some 
small  black  dots  or  points.  The  next  coat  has  but  one 
white  stripe  across  the  middle,  on  the  sixth  and  seventh 
rings,  with  orange  spots  beneath  the  black  points,  two 
white  spots  on  his  first  ring,  and  a  row  of  white  spots  on 
each  side.  Then  at  last  he  has  a  rich  coat,  striped  with 


34  INSECT  LIVES. 

black  and  dark  green,  and  ornamented  with  deep  yellow 
spots.  But  his  chrysalis  is  quite  plain,  with  nothing  of  the 
exquisite  beauty  of  the  green  and  gold  house  of  the  Dauais. 
But  when  he  leaves  his  shell,  coming  out  by  the  narrowest 
possible  front  door,  so  that  you  must  look  sharp  to  see  the 
thread-like  opening,  then  he  is  much  handsomer  than  the 
Danais  butterfly.  So,  many  people,  living  in  plain  taber- 
nacles, and  sometimes  regarded  homely  by  others,  have 
something  within,  waiting  to  give  great  surprise,  when. they 
shall  have  escaped,  through  a  narrow  door,  into  a  world  of 
wonderful  light  and  beauty ! 

The  Papilio  asterias  is  very  fond,  in  his  caterpillar  form, 
of  the  wild  carrot,  or  garden  carrot,  parsley,  or  celery,  and 
any  of  the  warm,  aromatic  plants,  as  anise,  caraway,  and 
dill. 

This  March  butterfly,  as  a  caterpillar,  was  eating  his 
delicate  carrot  leaves  and  seeds  last  September  at  the  same 
time  with  the  Danais  caterpillar,  and  as  we  brought  them 
fresh  leaves,  day  after  day,  and  watched  them  go  into 
their  queer  little  houses  at  the  same  time,  we  did  not  know 
then  but  they  would  have  their  "opening"  also,  together. 
But  while  the  Danais  was  ready  to  come  out  in  a  fort- 
night, or  three  weeks,  the  Asterias  slept  on  until  March  — 
six  months  under  his  glass  roof,  without  moving  a  hair's 
breadth,  until  he  was  out  trying  his  new  wings,  yesterday 
morning.  Some  other  kinds  of  chrysalids  have  kept  him 


TWO  FRONT  DOORS,  ETC.  35 

company  all  this  time,  except  that  they  have  moved  a  little, 
.and  sometimes  a  good  deal  (when  touched  with  a  pencil, 
or  slightly  blown  upon),  showing  the  life  within ;  but  not 
.a  particle — watch  him  never  so  closely — moves  the  Asterias. 
There  were  six  chrysalids  of  this  one  kind  under  separate 
glasses ;  all  of  which  were  taken  as  caterpillars,  and  each  of 
which  I  had  watched  go  into  his  separate  house.  It  is  not  a 


FIG.   13. 

-cocoon,  woven  as  some  are  of  his  own  hairs,  or  spun  from  some 
hidden  substance  through  a  spinneret;  but  like  the  Danais'  it 
is  formed  under  the  caterpillar  skin,  and  when  he  is  suspended 
as  a  caterpillar,  with  a  silken  thread  holding  him  about  the 
body,  as  shown  in  the  picture,  he  drops  off  the  entire  skin, 
.and  it  remains,  as  seen,  beside  his  chrysalis,  which  is  pale 
and  nondescript  in  color,  knobbed  with  many  little  round 


36  INSECT  LIVES. 

protuberances,  giving  it  a  curious  rather  than  pretty  ap- 
pearance. When  one  was  out,  the  next  thing  was  to  look 
at  the  others,  when  lo !  a  most  surprising  revelation ! 
Another  chrysalis  was  empty,  but  the  front  door  was  very 
different !  Instead  of  a  crack,  a  thread  wide  and  half  an 
inch  long,  in  the  upper  part  of  the  back  (the  narrow  black 
line  in  the  chrysalis  shows  the  butterfly's  door),  there  was 
in  the  side  (marked  0  in  the  picture  of  the  chrysalis,  and 
only  belonging'  there  to  show  this  second  front  door)  a  per- 
fectly round  hole,  the  size  of  a  pea;  and  trying  his  new 
wings  (four  narrow,  glossy,  blue-black  ones),  was  something 
more  unlike  the  butterfly  than  was  the  circular  door  he  came 


FIG.  14. 

out  of  unlike  the  narrow  door  of  the  Asterias.  Looking- 
something  like  a  saw-fly,  and  more  like  a  wasp,  it  was  a 
large  ichneumon  fly.  The  parent  ichneumon,  having  stung 
the  caterpillar  and  deposited  the  egg,  the  ichneumon  was  safe 
in  his  provided  chrysalis  home,  when  he  woke  up  to  a  sense 


TWO  FRONT  DOORS,  ETC.  37 

of  his  privileges,  and  not  only  appropriated  the  house  of  the 
Asterias,  but  literally  lived  on  the  occupant,  eating  him  up 
and  then  making  his  own  way  into  the  world,  leaving  the 
chrysalis  entirely  empty,  and  quite  whole,  with  the  exception 
of  the  round  door.  His  head  and  slender  body,  antennae, 
and  six  feet,  are  all  an  ochre  yellow.  The  eyes  are  large, 
jetty  black,  and  oval-shaped,  and  back  of  them,  on  the  top 
of  the  head,  are  three  round,  black  beads,  in  a  triangular 
position.  His  body  is  joined  to  his  head  and  shoulders  by  a 
pedicel,  so  long  and  slender  that  he  is  able  to  work  from  it 
like  a  pivot,  in  all  directions,  giving  as  fine  specimens  of 
gymnastic  operations  as  one  often  sees. 

His  veined,  clear  wings,  are  exquisitely  glossy,  and  he  pol- 
ishes their  steel  blue  till  it  burns  like  a  mirror.  He  has  the 
vanity  of  a  Beau  Brummel,  judging  by  the  great  pains  he 
hourly  takes  with  his  entire  toilet.  Grasping  both  his  long 
trembling  antennae  at  once,  and  smoothing  them  out  again, 
as  a  philosopher  would  stroke  his  beard,  nothing  is  left  on 
one  of  their  thirty-five  segments  large  enough  for  a  micro- 
scope to  reveal.  Then  his  wings  and  six  legs  go  through  the 
;same  operation,  and  he  is  ready  for  a  fresh  supply  of  sugared 
sweets.  But  alas,  his  mouth  !  If  he  had  claim  to  beauty  in 
every  other  particular,  one  good  look  at  this  remarkable  fea- 
ture in  a  mirror  would  secure  his  humility  for  ever.  An  hour's 
ilose  study  with  the  microscope  reveals  no  trace  of  beauty 
about  it !  The  most  curious  transformations  do  no  good  in  re- 


INSECT  LIVES. 


deeming  its  unmistakable  homeliness.  There  are  three  pro- 
jections from  it — impossible  to  describe — two  seem  like  short, 
curved  legs,  with  which  it  clasps  its  throat,  and  the  center  is  a. 
curved  affair  something  like  the  letter  V.  It  is  very  much 
like  the  mouth  of  a  wasp,  but  in  such  constant  motion  that 
one  can  not  guess  at  its  exact  shape  or  manner  of  manipula- 
tion. 

It  is  well  that  it  is  so  small  that  it  does 
not  detract  from  his  looks  except  with  the 
use  of  a  microscope — and  so  long  as  he  does 
not  know  it  himself  we  will  allow  his  vanity 
to  be  pardonable. 

One  such  parasite  will,  however,  satisfy  us,, 
and  we  hope  only  the  narrow  front  door  will 
open  for  the  rest  of  the  Asterias  chrysalids. 


FIG.  15. 


THE  EARL  Y  B  UTTERFL  F. 


IY. 


THE    EARLY   BUTTERFLY. 

WALKING  up  a  rocky  lane  one  warm  day  in  the  latter  part 
of  winter,  my  attention  was  called  to  a  large,  sombre-looking 
butterfly,  lying  flat  upon  a  rock.  Any  sort  of  butterfly,  so 
out  of  season,  was  worthy  of  notice,  and,  as  this  one  was 
very  quiet,  as  if  half  asleep,  I  easily  took  him  up  and  carried 
him  home  with  me.  He  was  handsomer  upon  inspection  than 


FIG.  16. 
THE  EARLY  BUTTERFLY. 


40  INSECT  LI  VES. 

at  first  sight  I  had  imagined.  The  wings,  though  grave  in. 
color,  were  really  a  rich  purple  brown,  with  a  broad  margin 
of  light  yellow  or  buff,  and  six  or  seven  spots  of  a  lavender 
color  inside  of  the  border  on  all  the  wings.  He  had  a  queer, 
pinched-looking  head,  with  sharp  features,  and  furry  front 
feet.  I  did  not  know  his  name,  and  as  he  was  very  restless, 
and  beat  constantly  against  his  prison  wall,  I  gave  him  his 
liberty.  Some  months  after,  on  June  5th,  of  the  same  year, 
I  found  on  a  shrub,  in  the  same  rocky  lane,  a  very  formidable 
looking  spine-covered  caterpillar. 


FIG.  17. 

He  was  black,  but  dotted  with  minute  irregular  white 
spots,  like  tiny  snow-flakes.  There  was  a  broad  black  line 
running  down  the  back,  interrupted  by  eight  spots  of  brick 
red.  Each  side,  also,  was  dotted  with  white  spots.  There 
were  seven  rows  of  large  spines,  besides  a  row  of  very  small 
but  similar  ones  low  down,  just  over  the  feet.  Each  of  the 
two  center  spines  on  the  ten  rings  were  branched,  as  also  the 
two  on  the  last  ring.  As  these  spines  were  stiff  and  sharp, 
and  did  not  lie  particularly  close  to  his  body,  he  was  treated 
in  a  very  cautious  manner  until  safe  in  his  glass  prison,  al- 


THE  EARLY  BUTTERFLY.  41 

though  I  have  been  told  that  these  caterpillars,  and  in  fact 
nearly  all  caterpillars,  however  formidable  they  may  look,  are 
in  fact  harmless.  The  fiercest  one  I  have  ever  seen,  that  of 
the  regal  walnut  moth  (Ceratocampa  r  eg  alls),  very  large,  and 
with  long  horny  spines  stretched  over  the  head,  which  when 
dirturbed  he  shakes  in  a  threatening  manner,  is  said  to  be 
perfectly  harmless.  One  would  certainly  prefer  to  test  this 
harmlessness  when  he  had  thrown  off  his  horns,  and,  after  a 
smooth,  chrysalis  life,  come  out  into  the  beautiful  walnut 
moth. 

The  caterpillar  I  had  imprisoned  did  not  at  first  like  his 
•confinement  at  all,  and  showed  a  most  worthy  persistency  in 
attempts  to  solve  the  possibilities  of  escape,  walking  with  en- 
tire contempt  over  the  fresh  leaves  of  the  willow  from  which 
he  was  taken  (and  any  species  of  which  he  will  eat),  going  up 
and  down  and  across  to  every  corner  and  joint  of  the  box, 
until,  at  last,  apparently  satisfied  that  he  was  secure  in  his 
new  abode,  he  as  wisely  accepted  the  situation  and  began 
such  a  marvelous  course  of  eating  as  showed  that  he  had  de- 
termined, if  he  must  be  a  prisoner,  not  to  commit  suicide  by 
starvation.  Leaf  after  leaf  disappeared  and  new  ones  were 
supplied,  until,  at  length,  he  suddenly  stopped  eating,  and 
began  to  weave  a  little  thread  and  fasten  himself  securely  at 
right  angles  with  the  side  of  the  box,  much  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Danais  caterpillar.  His  head  is  round,  large,  and 
flat  on  the  top,  resembling  the  old-fashioned  velvet  "jockey 


42  INSECT  LIVES. 

cap."  There  is  no  red  spot  on  the  first  two  rings  from  the 
head,  but  on  all  the  rest ;  each  spot,  on  close  examination, 
being  made  of  three  spots  close  together  in  the  form  of  a 
triangle,  in  this  manner  /.  Nothing  could  be  much  meeker, 
or  in  greater  contrast  to  his  first  eager  restlessness  and  snap- 
pishness,  than  his  appearance  after  he  has  fastened  himself 
by  his  hind  feet  firmly  to  the  glass,  with  his  head  downward 
and  bowed  forward  touching  the  glass,  only  a  slight  move- 
ment of  the  head  now  and  then  showing  that  he  is  alive. 
His  three  pairs  of  true  feet  he  draws  close  together  like  a 
wedge,  in  short,  spasmodic  movements,  and  then  slowly  opens 
them  again.  At  last,  after  a  day  or  more  of  this  suspension, 
he  throws  off  the  caterpillar  skin  and  shakes  himself  into  a> 
brownish  chrysalis,  which  operation  takes  but  a  few  sec- 
onds after  it  has  begun.  But  the  chrysalis,  which 
at  first  is  soft  and  misshapen,  has  to  assume  its 
characteristic  form,  which  it  does  by  contracting 
and  expanding  and  throwing  out  a  protuberance, 
until,  in  about  an  hour,  it  has  its  shape,  and  its 
surface  becomes  hardened  and  the  chrysalis  com- 
FIG.  18.  plete. 

This  was  on  the  6th  of  June,  and  on  the  18th  day  of  the- 
same  month  the  chrysalis  opened,  and  lo!  there  was  my* 
early  winter  butterfly,  the  Vanessa  antiopa.  This  one  was 
much  fresher  and  prettier  than  the  one  found  in  February, 
and  this  I  could  well  account  for  when  I  learned  that  this 


THE  EARLY  BUTTTERFLY. 


43- 


butterfly  lives  often  all  winter,  hiding  in  some  sheltered 
spot,  stupid  and  almost  dormant,  but  ready  for  the  first  sunny 
day,  sometimes  enticed  from  its  hiding-place  before  the  snow 
is  quite  gone,  its  wings  somewhat  worn  and  faded  by  it& 
winter's  experience.  Since  then  I  know  it  as  the  earliest 
butterfly,  and  am  not  surprised  to  see  it  early  in  February 
heralding  the  spring  far  in  advance  of  any  other. 


44 


INSECT >  LIVES. 


THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY. 


45 


V. 


THKOUGH   A   GLASS   CLEAKLY. 


do  not  like  to  see  a  beautiful  thing  at  a  disadvantage. 
When  a  large  cocoon  (yellowish-brown,  and  leaf  enwrapped), 
cut  from  a  spray  of  wild  raspberry,  in  September,  had  been 
watched  for  over  six  months,  and  showed  no  signs  of  life 
within,  it  was  half  given  up  as  a  useless  affair.  Inquiring 


FIG.  20. 


scissors,  one  day  in  March,  stole  an  entrance  into  the  cocoon 
by  carefully  snipping  one  end,  and  cutting  spirally  round  an 
opening  which  revealed,  unharmed,  the  living  chrysalis 
within.  It  seemed  certain  —  secret  as  it  then  was  —  that 


46 


INSECT  LIVES. 


from  out  this  brown-ringed  casket  some  beautiful  thing  was 
preparing  to  emerge. 


FIG.  21. 


FIG.  22. 


While  watching  it  closely,  a  month  later,  one  of  the 
vest-like  folds  on  the  breast  slowly  began  to  part,  reveal- 
ing, first,  a  curious  bridge  of  fringe  across  the  opening. 
What  could  this  be?  The  side  of  the  clear-glass  box,  even, 
was  too  much  obstruction  for  the  impatient  watcher.  "I 
can  not  look  at  this  through  a  glass  darkly,"  I  said,  as  the 
lid  was  removed ;  and  slowly  out  came 
this  amber  fringe,  a  broad,  beautiful  an- 
tenna, yellow  stemmed  from  base  to  tip, 
with  ochre-yellow  fibers  radiating  from  it 
in  a  perfect  plume.  The  other  soon  fol- 
lowed. So  large,  so  full,  so  beautiful  an- 
FIG.  23  tennse  I  had  not  seen  before. 

Now  for  the  microscope.    Ah,  the  difference  between  an 
obstructing  and  a  revealing  glass !     Between  seeing  through 


THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY.  47 

a  glass  darkly  and  through  a  glass  clearly  !  A  richly-colored 
center  stem,  of  thirty-one  joints,  and  two  filaments  to  each 
joint,  of  exquisite  finish  and  symmetry.  Then  a  little  wider 
parting  of  the  vest  (no  breaking  of  the  chrysalis),  now  and 
then  a  shiver  and  a  spasmodic  movement  of  the  whole 
chrysalis,  with  a  little  further  exit — another  shiver,  another 
waiting,  and  in  an  hour  and  a  half  out  came  a  beautiful  (but 
still  limp  and  contracted)  Polyphemus  moth. 

A  pot  of  hepatica  stood  ready  in  the  box  for  him  to  cling 
to  while  expanding  his  wings,  but  the  slight,  fresh  stems 
proving  too  frail  for  his  weight,  the  danger  of  a  fall  was  pre- 
vented by  putting  a  stick  into  the  earth  beside  the  hepatica, 
to  which  he  immediately  clung,  and  gently  unfolded  his  soft- 
hued  ochre  wings,  bordered  with  gray,  showing  two  large 
and  elegant  eye-spots  on  the  hinder  ones,  of  a  deep  blue- 
black,  with  a  transparent  oval  in  them,  clear  as  a  bit  of 
inserted  mica.  In  the  upper  wings  were  two  smaller  trans- 
parent ovals ;  a  collar,  edged  with  lake  color,  and  two  spots 
of  lake-red,  edged  with  black  on  the  edge  of  the  upper  wings, 
•completed  his  beauty.  The  body,  of  a  soft  brown  ochre,  was 
furry  and  feathery  as  an  owl.  Large  eyes,  six  short  furry 
dark-brown  legs,  a  softness  of  blending  in  color,  and  a  gentle- 
ness and  grace  of  motion  crowned  the  whole.  Lifting  his 
large  wings,  his  flight  was  slow  and  graceful ;  no  hurried 
fluttering  and  wild  beating  against  the  glass  when  a  prisoner; 
no  dashing  about  the  room  when  at  liberty. 


48  INSECT  LIVES. 

If  ever  a  name  was  a  misnomer,  it  is  surely  so  in  his  case. 
Polyphemus,  a  one-eyed  furious  giant,  a  murderer  and  greedy 
cannibal,  for  him  to  give  a  name  to  this  two-eyed,  gentle- 
natured  and  apparently  tongueless  moth  (whom  no  sweets- 
could  tempt),  simply  because  it  is  large  !  As  well  might  he 
be  called  the  Tower  of  Babel,  Behemoth,  Leviathan,  or  any 
other  great  thing  of  earth  or  sea.  He  is,  however,  not  likely 
himself  to  apply  to  the  legislature  for  redress  for  this  griev- 
ance. 

The  inside  of  this  cocoon  is  finished  with  the  hardness  and 
smoothness  of  the  inside  of  an  almond  shell,  which  it  closely 
resembles,  except  being  much  larger. 

The  larva  of  this  moth  is  described  as  of  a  bluish-green 
color,  with  a  yellowish-brown  head,  living  upon  the  oak,  elm, 
and  lime  trees ;  the  cast-on?  skin  was  inclosed  in  this  cocoon. 
The  disposition  of  the  eye-spotted  ochre  was  well  tested  in 
the  artist's  saloon.  No  philosopher  ever  showed  more  pa- 
tience and  dignity  under  repeated  trials  at  the  hands  of  a. 
photpgrapher  than  he  displayed  in  the  hands  of  his  persecu- 
tors, with  no  knowledge  of  the  cause  to  stimulate  his  vanity 
and  inspire  his  courage. 

I  said  the  mystery  wrapped  up  in  the  brown  cocoon  was  "  a 
secret."  In  studying  Natural  History  we  often  learn  the  first 
part  of  a  lesson  last ;  sometimes  the  middle  part  first ;  some- 
times it  is  years  after  we  get  part  first  before  we  can  find  part 
second,  even  of  a  short,  small  lesson.  The  pages  of  nature's. 


THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY.  49 

book  are  countless,  but  they  are  not  all  numbered,  and  some- 
times we  have  to  stop  and  wait  in  a  most  interesting  place. 
It  is  all  the  pleasanter  when  we  complete  the  round.  After 
the  Polyphemus  moth  had  been  mounted  for  months,  a  beau- 
tiful caterpillar  was  given  to  me.  He  was  very  large ;  of  a 
handsome  pea-green  color,  with  little  points  of  golden  yel- 
low, which,  in  certain  lights,  had  a  beautiful  pearly  appear- 
ance, like  frosted  silver.  There  were  five  or  six  of  these 
points  on  each  ring.  The  feet  and  the  head  were  a  light 
brown,  almost  exactly  the  color  of  an  almond  shell,  and  the 
green  Y-shaped  tail  was  bordered  with  a  line  of  darker 
brown. 

He  was  given  to  me  one  afternoon  in  August,  just  as  I 
was  about  to  go  out  for  a  walk.  After  admiring  him,  and 
noticing  carefully  his  colors  and  peculiar  shape,  I  said,  "  I 
will  sketch  him,  on  my  return."  But  there  are  some  things 
which  do  not  wait  upon  our  leisure,  and  a  caterpillar,  just 
ready  to  retire  to  private  life,  is  one.  So,  when  I  returned 
to  him,  two  hours  after,  the  only  way  he  could  be  sketched 
was  with  his  head  and  three  or  four  front  rings  peering  out 
from  a  well-begun  cocoon.  He  had  already  attached  the 
leaf  (it  was  a  maple,  as  he  was  found  near  a  maple  tree)  to 
the  side  of  the  glass  box,  and  drawn  it  about  him  partially, 
and  was  working  very  busily. 

My  disappointment  in  his  special  hurry  was  relieved,  how- 
ever, by  finding,  a  few  days  later,  and  in  quite  a  different 


50  INSECT  LIVES. 

locality,  another  caterpillar  of  the  same  kind,  which  is  now 
before  me,  clinging  to  a  spray  of  oak  leaves,  eating  and 
resting  as  he  chooses,  with  a  sort  of  elegant  leisure.  Turn- 
ing away  from  a  maple  leaf,  he  shows  his  preference  for  the 
oak ;  clasping  the  stem  of  the  leaves  firmly  with  his  ten  false 
feet,  he  moves  his  brown  head  silently  back  and  forth,  while 
the  leaf  melts  away  before  him  very  steadily.  He  has  the 


FIG.  24. 

same  disposition  manifested  by  the  Polyphemus  moth,  which 
he  anticipates.  He  never  jerks  about,  when  disturbed,  or 
shows  the  slightest  irritation,  as  do  many  of  the  caterpillars, 
and  is  so  quiet  in  every  movement  that  you  feel  sure  he  is 
well  contented  with  life  as  he  finds  it,  with  no  regrets  for 
the  past  or  speculations  about  the  future.  A  perfect  contrast 
to  him  is  the  little,  jerky,  impatient  caterpillar  of  the  quince, 


THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY.  51 

in  a  box  beside  him,  who,  if  touched  the  most  lightly,  will 
actually  spring  up  and  throw  himself  entirely  over,  in  the 
most  astonishing  manner.  Between  these  extremes,  every 
variety  of  disposition  prevails  among  them.  "When  at  full 
length,  this  Polyphemus  caterpillar  is  about  three  inches 
long ;  but  when  hunched  up  like  a  half-closed  Chinese  lan- 
tern— as  he  now  lies,  eating  his  oak  leaf — he  seems  but  little 
over  an  inch  in  length. 

The  edge  of  the  first  ring,  which  comes  close  round,  like  a 
hood,  over  the  brown  head,  is  light  lemon  yellow,  and  the 
upper  or  second  joint  of  the  true  feet,  and  a  narrow  border 
above  the  brown  feet,  are  also  yellow.  The  diagonal  side 
stripes  are  yellow,  also ;  the  spiracles — forming  a  dash  near 
the  center  of  each  diagonal  line — are  a  lake-colored  brown. 
Each  one  of  the  diagonal  lines  is  finished  at  either  end  with 
a  round  orange  or  gold-colored  knob  (like  the  old-fashioned 
"frog  button"),  with  a  single  white  bristle  in  each. 

This  marvelous  detail  of  finish  in  even  the  smallest  insect 
excites  our  constant  wonder  and  admiration. 

The  cocoon  spun  so  suddenly  by  the  first  of  these  two 
caterpillars  is  exactly  like  the  one  cut  from  the  wild  rasp- 
berry, except  that  the  color  is  a  lighter  yellow.  The  leaves 
are  drawn  over  it  in  the  same  manner,  and  firmly  glued  to 
the  cocoon.  The  mystery  which  this  had  seemed  before  was 
solved,  by  witnessing  him  make  the  cocoon,  just  as  you 
would  better  understand  the  Chinese  ball  within  a  ball  after 


52  INSECT  LIVES. 

seeing  one  cut.  He  first  bent  the  leaf  in  the  position  re- 
quired, drawing  it  up  at  the  end,  and  lapping  it  over  at  the 
side.  Then  he  spun  the  fine,  creamy  threads  of  silk,  weaving 
back  and  forth  very  dexterously,  connecting  the  opening  of 
the  leaves  with  the  side  of  the  box.  Contracting  his  body 
more  than  one-half  within  this  leafy  outline,  he  worked 
himself  adroitly  into  positions  to  form  its  symmetrical  out- 
line. I  watched  his  work  until  very  late  in  the  evening,  and 
the  next  morning  further  watching  was  useless.  He  had 
"  wrapped  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him,  and  lain 
down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

More  than  six  months  he  slept  in  his  cocoon ;  and  now  in. 
April,  1878,  he  is  a  handsome  Polyphemus  moth.  Very 
curiously,  he  came  out  just  one  day  later  than  the  one  last 
year  from  the  wild  raspberry.  That  was  on  April  19th,  and 
this  came  out  April  20th.  This  moth  is  not  quite  so  bright 
as  the  male  one,  and  the  antennae  are  not  so  large  and  plume- 
like;  but  otherwise  it  is  equally  handsome.  The  second  of 
the  two  caterpillars,  as  it  spun  up  a  little  later,  is  not  yet  outr 
but  the  cocoon  has  been  peered  into,  and  the  chrysalis,  in  the 
increasing  clearness  of  its  rings,  and  its  active  movements 
when  disturbed,  gives  promise  of  an  early  exit.  There  is  no- 
danger  of  injuring  the  moth  by  carefully  opening  the  cocoon 
which  holds  the  chrysalis,  and  then  its  change  can  be  watched 
as  it  turns  from  a  dark  brown  to  a  lighter  shade,  and  becomes 
almost  transparent  before  it  opens.  Since  writing  the  abovey 


THROUGH  A  GLASS  CLEARLY.  53 

•a  friend  sent  me  from  another  state,  a  box  with  a  note — 
which  was  read  before  opening  the  box — which  said,  two 
handsome  caterpillars  would  be  found  in  the  box.  On  trying 
to  remove  the  lid,  I  found  something  was  the  matter;  when 
lo,  instead  of  what  was  promised  me,  two  large,  scarcely 
completed  cocoons !  My  disappointment  would  have  been 
greater  had  I  not  known  them  at  once  as  belonging  to  the 
Polyhpemus  moth.  They  were  busy  travelers,  building  as 
they  went,  and  in  one  short  journey  completing  a  house,  with 
a,  speed  and  perfection  of  finish  which  puts  greater  architects 
to  shame. 


54  INSECT  LIVES. 


VI. 

HOW   I    CAUGHT   A   BEAR. 

I  WAS  walking  quite  alone,  when  a  slight  noise  attracted 
my  attention.  I  looked  about  me,  when,  close  at  hand,  and 
deliberately  advancing  toward  me,  I  saw — a  bear. 

I  was  not  in  the  least  alarmed,  which  proves  how  much 
there  is  in  a  name,  for  I  did  not  then  know  he  was  a  bear. 

Determined  to  capture  him,  I  armed  myself  with  a  small 
twig  and  a  very  small  cage  in  the  shape  of  a  tumbler. 

Instead  of  resisting,  he  coiled  up  quickly  into  a  ball,  was 
tipped  into  the  cage,  and  this  soon  inverted  over  a  piece  of 
white  paper  on  a  book. 

Thinking  a  leaf  might  attract  him,  I  put  a  bit  of  cabbage 
leaf  under  the  glass,  and  soon  he  was  forgetful  of  his  im- 


FIG.  25. 

prisonment    in    satisfying  what    proved    to    be  an  almost 
insatiable  appetite. 


HOW  I  CAUGHT  A  BEAU.  55 

He  spent  his  time  for  some  days  in  devouring  leaves  and 
taking  exercise  by  rapidly  traveling  about  his  small  prison. 

Eat,  march,  eat,  march,  was  his  programme,  until,  not 
satisfied  with  one  den,  he  made  himself  another,  and  having 
sealed  himself  in,  I  saw  him  as  he  was  no  more.  I  afterward 
found  that  inside  of  the  second  den  he  formed  another.  His 
winter  quarters  were  secure. 

This  was  in  September.  He  slept  undisturbed  until 
March,  and  then  he  began  to  go  about  again  quite  freely, 
but  in  a  new  coat.  He  ate,  too,  but  very  delicately.  Not 
leaves,  but  a  dainty  sip  of  honeyed  sweets.  In  September 
he  was  a  yellow -bear  caterpillar.  In  March  he  was  an 
ermine  moth. 


FIG.  26.  FIG.  27. 

A  white  miller,  we  should  say,  but  when  we  part  his 
wings  we  see  his  body  is  yellow  striped  lengthwise,  and 
alternating  with  each  stripe  has  a  row  of  black  dots.  And 
on  his  wings  there  is  the  merest  point  of  a  black  dot  (one 
on  each  fore  wing,  and  two  on  the  hinder  ones),  so  very 
small  that  you  would  not  at  first  notice  them.  But  they 
belong  to  him,  and  are  always  there.  For  he  is  not  the  only 


56  INSECT  LIVES. 

bear  we  have  watched  through  this  change,  and  four  or  five 
quiet,  dreamy,  pointed,  black-dotted  moths  are  now  in  a  box 
close  by  me,  all  alike,  except  a  little  different  in  size. 


FIG.  28. 

These  are  the  Virginia  ermine  moths. 

In  the  same  box  are  some  many-spotted  ermine  moths, 
something  like  leopard  moths ;  but  whether  tiger,  bear,  or 
leopard,  the  name  is  not  derived  from  the  nature,  as  all  are 
quite  meek,  and  much  more  like  a  lamb. 

There  is  one  of  these  white  millers  beside  me  now  as  I 
write.  The  same  tiny  speck  on  each  fore  wing,  the  same 
two  dots  on  the  hinder  wing.  He,  too,  went  into  his  den  in 
September,  and  came  out  in  March  (1879),  so  white  and 
furry  about  the  head  that  if  as  a  caterpillar  he  should  be 
called  a  yellow  bear,  as  a  moth  I  should  call  him  a  polar 
bear. 


CRUMPLE-WING. 


57 


VII. 


CRUMPLE-WING. 


FIG.  29. 


CRUMPLE-WING  came  out  of  his  winter's  sleep  in  March. 
He  went  in  in  September.     He  was  a  salt-marsh  caterpillar 


FIG.  30. 


(the  Arctia  acrea).    But  he  seemed  very  much  at  home  in  an 
inland  garden.    He  was  on  the  croquet  ground,  plodding  his 


58  INSECT  LIVES. 

way  among  rolling  balls  and  quick  footsteps,  when  he  was 
made  a  prisoner. 

He  lived  on  grass,  plantain  and  other  leaves,  until  he  wove 
his  yellowish -brown  hairy  cocoon  under  his  glass  tumbler. 

I  do  n't  know  why  he  came  out  of  his  long  rest  with  a 
crumpled  wing.  I  think  he  had  plenty  of  room  under  his 
glass,  and  no  one  touched  him  before  he  was  perfectly  free 
and  walking  about  in  his  queer  one-sided  manner.  When  a 
Danais  butterfly,  on  coining  out  of  his  chrysalis  last  summer,, 
exhibited  a  marred  and  crumpled  wing,  I  knew  it  was  be- 
cause he  had  been  confined  in  too  small  a  space  for  his  wings 
to  expand  fully ;  and  the  form  of  the  pupa  itself  had  been 
compressed  by  the  position  in  which  it  was  formed,  so  as  to 
resemble  in  shape  half  an  acorn-cup  rather  than  a  whole 
acorn,  which  it  looks  a  good  deal  like  when  perfect.  Another 
Danais  had  its  wing  marred  by  touching  it  very  gently  with 
a  pencil's  point,  in  the  eagerness  to  see  it  expand  more 
quickly.  The  slightest  touch  at  that  time  will  injure  this 
delicate  fabric,  than  which  nothing  in  nature  seems  more 
susceptible  of  harm.  But  there  was,  no  doubt,  a  hidden 
reason  tor  Crumple- wing's  misfortune,  at  whatever  time  it  oc- 
curred. His  right  wings  are  perfect  and  quite  handsome. 
The  hinder  left  wing  but  half  unrolled,  and  much  shriveled. 
The  hinder  wings  are  a  rich  ocher-yellow ;  the  front  pair 
white,  dotted  with  black,  and  ocher-lined.  His  back  is  ocher- 
yellow,  with  seven  black  spots  down  its  center ;  six  on  the 


CRUMPLE-WING.  59- 

yellow,  and  one  on  the  last  ring  of  the  body,  which  is  white. 
Two  rows  of  black  spots  ornament  the  sides,  and  there  is  one 
on  the  under  side  of  the  body  also.  His  antennae  are  long  and 
graceful,  and  the  microscope  shows  them  to  be  variegated  in 
color,  and  with  spiky  hairs,  instead  of  being  feathered.  His 
head  and  neck-cape  are  tinged  with  ocher.  At  first  he  ap- 
peared so  indifferent  to  food  that  it  seemed  doubtful  whether 
he  had  a  tongue;  and  after  being  tempted  in  vain  with 
sugared  water,  he  was  left  some  days  to  work  out  the  ques- 
tion without  it.  But  when  next  offered  a  chance  to  break 
his  fast,  it  was  amusing  to  see  how  eagerly  he  thrust  out  his 
short,  amber-colored  tongue  and  drew  up  the  sweets,  as  a 
a  child  would  sip  lemonade  with  a  straw.  After  his  long  fast, 
before  eating,  he  had  strength  enough  to  tow  another  moth 
and  two  empty  cocoons  (which  chanced  to  b'e  caught  together 
near  him)  all  about  his  box,  having  entangled  the  claw  of 
his  foot  in  the  loose  hair  of  the  empty  chrysalis  cover.  One- 
or  two  dead  moths  were  placed  purposely  near  him.  He 
walked  slowly  about  them,  looking  at  them  with  the  appear- 
ance of  an  anxious  doctor  or  surgeon,  studying  the  case  for  a 
time,  and  then  walking  off,  evidently  satisfied  that  hope  was 
gone  when  no  sign  of  life  could  be  perceived.  It  never- 
seemed  to  occur  to  him  to  attend  to  his  own  case,  which  was, 
however,  well  enough,  as  it  would  have  required  as  much 
skill  to  unroll  his  shriveled  wing  into  symmetry  as  to  put 
into  their  dead  forms  a  new  life.  Just  as  he  stands  now,. 


•60 


INSECT  LIVES. 


with  his  head  and  left  wing  hidden  under  a  leaf  of  the 
blooming  hepatica,  you  would  never  think  of  calling  him 
Crumple-wing.  His  best  foot  is  foremost.  He  is  a  fine 
looking  Acrea. 


FIG.  31. 


UNDER  THE  CAPE.  61 


VIII. 

UNDER   THE   CAPE. 

THE  very  day  Crumple- wing  gave  up  trying  to  inspect 
others,  or  hold  on  to  his  own  life  any  longer,  another  Arctia 
acrea  came  out.  His  brown  cocoon  was  larger  than  Crumple- 
wing's.  In  fact  so  much  larger  than  any  one  of  the  kind 
I  had  been  watching,  that  a  very  fine  specimen  was  looked 
for  from  it.  As  other  Acreas  had  appeared,  who  went  in 
about  the  same  time,  he  was  daily  expected,  and  a  hope 
(which  rather  grows  less  as  moths  increase  in  number),  was 
indulged  that  his  exit  might  be  witnessed.  A  slight  appearance 
of  a  disturbance  at  one  end  of  the  cocoon  had  been  noticed, 
and  he  was  closely  watched.  Just  as  the  tea  bell  rang 
another  look  was  given  to  his  glass  box ;  when  lo !  there 
was  a  small  oval  opening  in  one  end  of  the  cocoon,  and 
the  moth  was  rapidly  advancing  up  the  side  of  the  box 
to  the  top.  But  worse  than  Crumple-wing !  Except  that  he 
was  symmetrical,  his  yellow,  black-dotted  body  was  only  par- 
tially covered  by  a  very  short  white  cape,  and  two  pairs  of 
very  sbort  wings,  looking  like  the  old-fashioned  double-cloak 
capes,  without  the  cloak. 


INSECT  LIVES. 

Watching  him  for  a  little,  with  a  curious  mixture  of 
wonder  and  pity,  we  left  him ;  when  lo  !  on  return- 
ing in  half  an  hour  he  was  all  right — as  perfect 
and  handsome  a  specimen  of  the  white-winged 
Acrea  as  could  be  found.  His  cloak  had  only 
been  packed  under  his  cape.  And  this  is  the  way 
he  looked  before  he  shook  it  out. 
FIG.  31  £.  If  another  caped  moth  is  seen  before  he  has 
shaken  out  his  entire  garment,  something  more  than  a  tea 
bell  will  be  needed  to  prevent  a  careful  watching  of  the  pro- 
cess. There  was  nothing  of  the  limp  appearance  of  a  new 
butterfly,  to  suggest  any  further  development  of  wings  as 
necessary.  His  cape  was  snowy  and  full  and  downy,  and  he 
walked  off  with  the  buoyancy  and  strength  of  a  fully  devel- 
oped and  perfectly  dressed  creature.  The  black  dots  upon  his 
wings  are  more  exactly  symmetrical  than  in  any  of  this  kind 
before  noticed.  By  actual  count  almost  precisely  equal  in 
number,  as  well  as  alike  in  shape  and  size.  The  color  under 
the  throat  is  a  rich  orange,  and  also  of  the  thighs ;  the  legs 
being  five  jointed,  alternating  in  black  and  white.  The  joints 
resemble  the  divisions  in  the  stems  of  rushes,  as  is  the  case 
with  those  of  most  moths  when  examined  with  the  micro- 
scope. The  last  joint  terminates  in  a  sharp,  black  claw,  with 
which  he  can  cling  with  a  force  not  to  be  overcome  without 
danger  of  breaking.  His  antennse  are  spiked,  instead  of 
feathered ;  and  if  Crumple- wing  is  an  Arctia,  as  we  have 


UNDER  THE  CAPE. 


63 


supposed,  and  he  seems  to  answer  the  description  of  that 
moth  exactly,  this  is  one  of  the  same  class,  without  the  ocher- 
lined  front  and  the  ocher  hinder  wings.  When  at  rest  his 
wings  are  roofed  or  sloped  downward,  covering  the  yellow 
spotted  body  entirely. 


FIG.  32. 


64  INSECT  LIVES. 


IX. 


THE   AKCTIAN   AND   ICHNEUMON. 

THERE  were  still  two  chrysalids  of  the  Arctian  left,  and 
two  days  after  the  one  had  stolen  out  from  under  his  double 
cape  (all  moths  and  butterflies  have  the  double-cape  appear- 
ance), one  of  these  chrysalids  was  seen  slowly  ascending  the 
glass  prison  wall,  piloted  by  the  head  and  forelegs  of  an  ash- 
colored  moth,  creeping  slowly  along  with  his  heavy  brown 
house  on  his  back  ! 

It  was  another  Arctia,  or  "  false  ermine  moth,"  as  those  of 
this  gray  color  are  sometimes  called.  After  a  little  while  the 
chrysalis  fell,  and  the  moth  was  free  ;  but,  as  he  had  "jarred 
in  the  gate  "  (from  not  being  able  from  some  reason  to  throw 
off'  the  chrysalis  so  soon  as  he  ought),  his  wings  were  some- 
what cramped,  and  he  looked  like  a  second  cousin  to  Crum- 
ple-wing. 

After  a  supper  of  sweetened  water,  and  upon  the  lighting 
of  the  gas  (which  always  puts  fresh  life  into  every  fiber  of  a 
moth),  he  shook  out  his  wings  very  respectably,  and  showed 
his  appreciation  of  light  as  the  first  object  in  life.  He  was 
of  a  soft  glossy  ash  color,  and  his  body  had  three  rows  of 
black  dots  running  lengthwise  down  the  center  and  sides. 


THE  AECTIAN  AND  ICHNEUMON.  65 

It  is  no  slander  to  say  that  he  was  double-tongued,  which, 
however  much  to  be  deprecated  in  human  beings,  is  really 
nothing  against  one  who  uses  his  tongue  only  to  gather 
sweets. 

While  some  of  the  larger  moths  seem  to  have  no  tongue, 
the  Arctians  are  usually  supplied  with  two.  They  are  coiled 
up  side  by  side,  sometimes  joined  together  lengthwise,  and 
sometimes  quite  separate. 

The  last  remaining  chrysalis  was  just  like  the  one  of  the 
ash-colored  moth,  but  when  it  opened,  instead  of  the  expected 
Arctian,  out  came  a  large  slender-bodied  Ichneumon  fly!  his 
head  bright  yellow  and  his  legs  alternating  with  honey-yel- 
low and  black.  His  wings  are  a  brilliant  steel  blue.  He 
resembles  the  Ichneumon  that  came  out  of  the  "  round  "  front 
door  of  the  Asterias,  but  is  larger,  and  has  a  sword-shaped 
borer  nearly  half  an  inch  in  length,  giving  him  rather  a 
formidable  appearance,  as  he  comes  buzzing  in  his  "April 
fool ! "  with  a  bold  whirr,  instead  of  stealing  in  softly  with  the 
meekness  of  the  feather- winged  Arctian. 


66  INSECT  LIVES. 


THE  WHITE    ERMINE   MOTH. 

I  FOUND  him  one  November  day, 

A  stiffened  circlet  at  my  feet, 
And  made  him  prisoner  in  my  room, — 

His  brown  coat  glistening  with  the  sleetf 

Awhile  he  lay  as  still  and  stiff, 
As  though  his  little  life  were  o'er, 

Then  yielding  to  the  new-found  warmth, 
Shook  off  the  icy  pearls  he  wore, 

Surveyed  awhile  his  crystal  walls, 
Shut  in  from  liberty  and — cold ; 

Then  built  an  inner  prison  wall, 
Closely  his  body  to  enfold. 

He  seemed  to  sleep  an  endless  sleep, 

Silent  and  still  so  long  he  lay, 
"When  lo !  in  robes  of  snowy  white 

He  sprang  to  life  one  winter's  day ! 


A  HUNDRED  TO  ONE. 


6 


XI. 


A   HUNDRED   TO  ONE. 


FIG.  33. 

had  been  looking  in  vain  for  caterpillars  on  grape- 
Tine,  walnut,  and  sycamore,  when  we  stopped  before  a  large 
woodbine,  which  threw  its  clusters  over  the  side  of  my 
friend's  piazza,  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.  We  sent  our  eyes  upon  a 
voyage  of  discovery,  and  peering  among  the  thick  matted 
mass  of  green — 

"  Oh,  here  is  a  fine  fellow,"  exclaimed  Teddy,  the  eager 
little  boy  being  the  first  to  discover  a  pale  green  caterpillar, 
so  nearly  the  color  of  the  vine  that  the  similarity  was  his 
greatest  protection. 


68  INSECT  LIVES. 

"Here  is  another,  and  another!  They  seem  to  be  out  in 
force  to-day ;  but  these  are  so  high  up — how  shall  I  reach 
them  ?  " 

"  I  '11  get  a  step  ladder,"  said  Teddy ;  and  disappearing 
behind  the  corner  of  the  piazza,  he  soon  came  back  tugging 
the  heavy  steps,  and  placed  them  under  the  woodbine.  Now 
for  some  tumblers.  They  were  soon  brought,  and  the  cater- 
pillars imprisoned  before  they  knew  it,  eating  on  the  leaf 
which  had  been  clipped  from  the  vine. without  even  disturb- 
ing their  dinner.  It  was  well  we  secured  as  many  as  we  did, 
or  even  one  moth  might  not  have  repaid  us ;  for  the  cater- 
pillar of  the  woodbine,  in  common  with  many  others,  has  a 
secret  little  enemy,  from  which  he  is  not  apt  to  escape. 
These  nice  looking  ones  with  such  good  appetites,  however, 
did  not  seem'  to  have  any  lurking  danger.  But  one  can  not 
always  tell.  Damocles  was  not  the  only  one  over  whose  head 
hung  a  sword  while  he  was  enjoying  his  repast.  Teddy  se- 
lected two  of  the  best — not  to  keep  himself — but  for  the  friend 
who  was  helping  him  hunt  them.  The  caterpillars  were  soon 
separated ;  Teddy's  remaining  where  they  were  found,  and 
the  two  others  going  a  long  journey.  Pretty  soon  some 
strange  things  appeared  on  Teddy's  caterpillar.  He  ate  on, 
but  looked  rather  dispirited,  as  if  he  had  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  hair  by  which  the  fatal  sword  was  suspended.  Soon 
he  was  walking  about  with  something  all  over  his  back, 
which  made  him  look  as  if  he  had  taken  a  bath,  and  then. 


A  HUNDRED  TO  ONE.  69 

rolled  about  in  a  box  of  rice !     The  microscope  showed  these 
xice  grains  to  be  perfect  cocoons,  white  and  silky,  and  each 


FIG.  34. 

looking  as  if  a  little  cover  were  fitted  to  one  end.  Something 
moves  inside  of  these.  Some  of  the  little  intruders  are  still 
working  on  the  inside  of  their  rice-houses,  polishing  the  ceil- 
ing and  giving  the  finishing  touch  to  the  walls. 

By  and  by  they  are  completed,  and  then  the  woodbine  cat- 
erpillar begins  to  grow  weaker.  After  a  week  or  two,  these 
little  covers  begin  to  fly  open,  and  as  they  lie  back  on  their 
hinges,  out  of  each  one  creeps  a  small  fly,  and  begins  to  go 
up  the  glass. 

He  is  a  prisoner,  and  we  can  study  him.  He  is  one  of  our 
old  friends,  a  species  of  Ichneumon,  with  ugly  mouth,  jointed 
.antennae,  hooked  feet,  amber  legs,  and  thin,  narrow  wings. 
He  is  very  small — but  there  are  so  many ! 
'The  poor  caterpillar  can  not  stand  it.  A 
hundred  to  one  is  too  much,  and  by  the  time 
that  over  one  hundred  of  these  swords  have 
pierced  his  body,  he  was,  as  Teddy's  grand-  FIG.  35. 

mother  said,  "very  dead."     Here  is  his  likeness,  which  au 


70 


INSECT  LIVES. 


artist  took  for  Teddy's  friend.    You  can  only  see  his  headr 
one  or  two  wings,  and  one  foot. 


FIG.  36. 

But  the  two  caterpillars  which  took  the  journey  seemed  to- 
escape  this  trouble.  They  both  soon  went  into  chrysalids* 
One  drew  a  leaf  about  him,  and  fastened  it  with  a  few  glossy 
hair  lines  to  the  bottom  of  the  glass ;  the  other  made  a  hint 
of  a  cocoon,  with  a  thin  network  of  gauze-spun  threads, 
and  twenty  days  after  came  out  a  pretty  moth  —  the  fore- 
wings  olive  gray,  banded  and  shaded  with  olive  green,  and 
the  hind  wings  a  reddish  brick  or  rust  color.  Both  pairs  of 
wings  were  uniquely  scalloped.  The  chrysalids  were,  first  a 
sort  of  mulberry  color,  irregularly  spotted  here  and  there,, 
and  the  one  which  opened,  growing  brown  (and  a  very  dark 


A  HUNDRED  TO  ONE.  71 

brown  between  some  of  the  center  rings),  just  before  coming 
out.  The  second  chrysalis,  formed  some  days  later,  is  brown 
and  dark-ringed  ;  but  as  it  is  a  fortnight 
since  the  moth  made  his  appearance,  he 
is  taking  it  very  leisurely,  if  he  appear 
at  all.  This  caterpillar  and  moth  answer  FIG.  36 £. 

to  the  description  given  by  Harris  of  the  Choerocampa,  or 
hog  caterpillar  (which  seems  as  great  a  misnomer  as  that  of  the 
Polyphemus),  from  a  fancied  resemblance  of  the  head  to  that 
animal — the  head  of  the  caterpillar  being  small,  and  the 
fourth  and  fifth  rings  very  large,  and  tapering  to  the  small  head. 
The  moth  has  been  named  Pampinatrix,  from  its  living  on 
the  shoots  of  the  vine.  The  caterpillar  lives  upon  the  grape, 
as  well  as  the  woodbine.  In  Harris'  description,  it  is  said 
that  the  moth  leaves  the  chrysalis  "  in  the  month  of  July,  of 
the  following  year."  But  this  (as  most  other  moths)  has  an 
opportunity  of  trying  the  world  twice  in  the  course  of  a  year. 
Some  very  large  caterpillars  —  four  inches  in  length,  and  as 
large  as  one's  finger  or  thumb  —  closely  resembling  the 
Choerocampa  in  shape,  have  since  been  found  on  a  woodbine 
in  Pennsylvania.  They  were,  however,  so  completely  covered 
with  the  "  rice  houses "  (more  than  a  hundred  to  one)  that 
they  were  not  kept.  Only,  the  parasites  were  brushed  from 
one  into  a  box,  and  now  the  "  syrup  cups  "  are  opening,  and 
a  perfect  colony  of  Ichneumons  are  running  up  and  down  the 
glass,  wondering  how  they  came  to  be  born  in  prison. 


72  INSECT  LIVES. 


XII. 

THE    UNFINISHED   LIFE   OF   QUAKER   GRAY. 

I  HAD  a  little  Quaker,  dressed 

In  starry  robe  of  gray, 
With  silken  tufts  of  black  and  white 

Completing  his  array. 

His  home  was  on  a  Quaker  leaf, 

A  poplar,  silver-lined ; 
On  this  he  lived,  from  this  he  ate, 

Beneath  my  glass  confined. 

If  frightened,  he  would  drop  the  fringe 

Of  tufted  black  and  white, 
Putting  his  jetty,  varnished  head 

Completely  out  of  sight. 

One  day,  when  he  grew  very  tired — 

Tired  of  his  poplar  leaf, 
Tired  of  his  small  glass  prison  and 

His  little  life,  so  brief, 


THE  UNFINISHED  LIFE  OF  QUAKER  GRAY.  73 

He  climbed  his  crystal  wall,  and  wove, 

In  silence  all  the  day, 
A  Quaker  hammock  for  himself, 

Of  tissue  silvery  gray ; 

Wove  it  about  his  bead-like  head, 

About  his  feet,  so  queer —     9 
Ten  feet  behind,  like  amber  spools, 

So  yellow  and  so  clear, 

And  six  in  front,  like  tiny  horns — 

So,  fastened  in  his  net, 
Day  after  day,  as  still  as  death, 

Hung  the  poor  Quaker  pet. 

One  morning,  slowly  out  he  crept, 

And  a  fresh  suit  he  wore, 
But  to  my  disappointment,  just 

Like  what  he  had  before. 

Perhaps  a  little  longer  waved 

His  tufts  of  black  and  white, 
Perhaps  a  little  glossier  grew 

His  silvery  coat,  so  bright. 


74  INSECT  LIVES. 

Weeks  passed ;  a  closer  net  lie  wove, 

Again  of  sober  gray, 
And,  self-immured,  profoundly  slept 

His  second  life  away. 

More  than  a  year  for  coming  wings 
I  watched  that  tight-locked  cell. 

Still  closed  remains  his  prison  door, 
And  now  I  know  full  well 

That  this  short  tale  of  Quaker  Gray 
Is  all  that  I  can  tell ! 


AN  EARLY  CECROPIAN. 


XIII. 


AN   EARLY   CECROPIAN. 


FIG.  37. 

Two  rough  brown  oval  cocoons,  spun  (with  one  flat  sur- 
face fastened  lengthwise  to  a  branch)  by  the  large  green  cat- 
erpillar of  the  Attacus  cecropia  moth, 
were  brought  in,  and  lying  side  by 
side,  looked  as  nearly  alike  as  pos- 
sible. From  one  of  them,  on  March 
1st,  as  if  to  show  his  appreciation  FlG- 

of  spring,  the  fine  Cecropian  stole  out  which  is  now  in  the- 
glass  before  me.  The  other  cocoon,  from  eagerness  to  see 
what  promise  it  gave  of  a  mate,  was  carefully  cut  at  one  end ; 
when  lo,  an  empty  chrysalis  within  !  Even  with  a  microscope 


76  INSECT  LIVES. 

no  place  of  exit  was  to  be  discerned.  But  his  cast-off  dress 
was  in  the  tomb,  and  it  was  evident  he  had  with  more  skill 
and  silence  than  the  vanishing  Arab,  gone  off  without  his 
tent,  to  enjoy  the  freedom  he  could  not  have  had,  had  he  been 
born  in  prison.  I  could  easily  believe  the  remark  of  Harris,  as 
I  searched  in  vain  for  the  "front  door,"  that  the  threads  of 
the  cocoon  of  this  moth  "  converge  again  by  their  own  elas- 
ticity, so  as  almost  entirely  to  close  the  opening  after  the  in- 
sect has  escaped."  In  fact,  I  could  omit  the  "almost."  The 
change  is  indeed  marvelous  from  the  large,  light  green  and 
coral-dotted  caterpillar  (making  one  think  of  a  cactus  stem 
that  had  concluded  to  walk  off),  to  the  gray,  white,  and  cinna- 
mon-brown moth  (fig.  39).  The  six  legs  and  most  of  the 
body  are  cinnamon  red.  The  broad,  brown  antennae,  with 
central  amber  stem,  come  out  from  the  front  of  the  rather 
small  cinnamon-colored  head.  Just  back  of  this  a  neat  white 
collar,  and  then  the  tufty  brown  extends  back  half  an  inch, 
and  from  it  proceed  the  wings.  Then  comes  a  narrow  band 
of  lead  color,  and  the  rest  of  the  body  is  ringed  with  black, 
white,  and  cinnamon  red,  alternating.  Along  each  side  are 
seven  round  cinnamon-red  spots,  bordered  with  white.  The 
finish  of  the  hinder  wings,  in  heavy  lines  of  alternate  gray 
and  black,  remind  one  of  pheasant's  wings ;  but  above  this 
border  is  a  line  of  the  red,  and  above  that,  a  narrow  line  of 
white.  In  the  rich,  furry  grayish-brown  of  the  hind  wings 
are  two  large  crescents  of  red  and  white.  The  front  wings 


AN  EARLY  CECROPIAN. 


7T 


78  INSECT  LIVES. 

have  no  white  in  the  stripe  above  the  beautiful  scolloped  gray 
and  reddish- white.  They  have  an  eye  spot  near  the  edge  of 
very  dark  brown  or  black,  edged  with  white.  It  is  a  very 
rich  moth,  though  not  as  soft  in  the  harmony  of  its  colors 
.as  the  Polyphemus.  Like  that  it  is  very  gentle  in  its  manner, 
keeping  almost  entirely  quiet  during  the  day,  and  flying  but 
little  in  the  evening.  Its  eyes  are  black.  If  it  has  any 
tongue  it  is  not  to  be  seen,  at  least  while  the  moth  is  living, 
even  with  a  microscope ;  nor  can  the  moth  be  tempted  to  use  it. 
Its  wonderful  tenacity  of  life,  when  this  fact  is  considered, 
is  very  remarkable.  It  will  live  about  three  weeks  apparently 
with  no  food,  and  pays  slight  attention  to  any  thing  ordi- 
narily used  in  putting  moths  to  sleep !  This  moth  stands 
most  of  the  day  with  its  wings  almost  together,  but  will 
slowly  open  them  to  their  full  extent  if  blown  upon  slightly. 
The  caterpillar  may  be  found  upon  the  apple,  cherry,  or  plum- 
tree,  and  changes,  from  being  at  first  a  deep  yellow,  to  its  last 
•coat  of  handsome  light  green,  before  going  into  its  chrysalis 
(fig  35).  It  is  said  by  Harris  to  come  out  in  June,  but, 
whether  on  account  of  the  very  mild  winter  and  the  usual 
•difference  of  climate  between  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania, 
or  as  a  surprise  to  insect  lovers,  this  Cecropia  is  three  months 
in  advance  of  that  season.  So  early  an  exit  will  make  less  dif- 
ference to  a  moth  without  a  tongue.  There  are  three  fine  co- 
coons of  the  Attacus  cecropia  before  me,  in  a  glass  box  (opened 
at  one  side  so  that  the  chrysalids  can  be  watched),  as  I  write 


THE  EARLY  CECROPIAN.  79 

(March  29,  1879),  and  by  the  transparent  lines  between  the 
rings,  one  of  them  shows  it  will  soon  release  its  impatient 
prisoner.  The  Cecropia  worm  spins  its  cocoon  invariably 
alongside  a  twig  or  branch,  as  shown  in  the  cut,  when  in  the 
orchard  or  wood.  But  one  of  these  three  (the  caterpillar  of 
which  was  confined  in  a  glass  jar)  made  his  cocoon  of  the 
usual  shape  and  texture,  except  that  the  material  is  a  richer 
glossier  brown,  but  it  is  not  attached  to  a  stem.  It  was  fast- 
ened to  the  side  of  the  glass  by  a  heavy  web  of  dark  silk, 
very  much  darker  than  the  cocoon  itself,  which  is  a  hand- 
some russet  brown.  The  inner  lining  is  very  glossy,  and 
the  whole  fully  three  inches  long. 


INSECT  LIVES. 


XIV. 

THE    ROSY   DRYOCAMPA. 

I  HAVE  been  April-fooled  several  times  within  the  last 
hour.  Not  by  a  person  ;  but  by  a  moth  —  my  beautiful  Rosy 
Dryocampa  It  was  no  April  fool,  but  a  very  pleasant  sur- 
prise, its  coming  out  this  April  morning  after  its  long,  sound 
sleep,  never  once  moving,  in  the  black,  ring-notched  chrysa- 
lis, since  it  went  into  it  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  last  August. 
A  beautiful  little  creature  it  is,  especially  the  under  wings, 

which  look,  more  than  any 
thing  else,  like  a  stray  rose- 
tinted  sea-shell,  such  as  one 
sometimes  finds,  nearly  trans- 
parent, and  almost  as  flat  as  a 
FlG-  40-  rose  petal. 

I  was  trying  to  sketch  it,  and  it  would  stay  so  perfectly 
still  that  I  would  think,  "Now,  I  shall  have  a  good  chance!" 
and  lo !  when  one  wing,  or  the  crested  head,  was  half  drawn, 
away  it  would  fly.  Recaptured,  I  would  begin  again,  and 
with  the  same  success  as  before ;  so  that  when  I  had  about 
six  half-finished  sketches,  in  as  many  different  positions,  I 


THE  ROSY  DEYOCAMPA.  81 

remembered  it  was  the  first  of  April,  and  quietly  put  it  under 
glass,  until  the  picture  was  secured. 

There  are  but  two  colors,  rose  and  yellow.  The  upper 
wings  deeply  bordered  with  rose,  behind,  and  broad  epau- 
lettes of  the  same  color.  The  under  body  and  feet  are  rose 
color,  also,  and  there  is  the  faintest  hint  of  rose  on  the  under 
wings,  which  are  studiously  kept  out  of  sight.  All  the  rest 
is  a  bright  yellow.  The  head  is  tufted,  and  the  eyes  are  set 
so  far  under  in  front  as  not  to  show,  unless  you  peer  under 
the  tuft,  where  you  see  them,  black  and  round,  close  to  his 
little  front  feet.  There  is  a  triangle  of  yellow,  bordered  with 
red,  between  them,  and  a  little  triangular  tuft  of  the  same 
color  at  the  base  of  each  of  the  delicate  antennae.  Much  of 
the  time  when  the  moth  is  at  rest  these  antennse  are  com- 
pletely hidden,  by  lying  back  close  along  the  edge  of  the 
front  wings  (like  those  of  the  Quinque  maculatum),  so  that 
you  would  be  apt  at  first  to  think  he  had  none.  They  have 
about  thirty  joints,  as  near  as  one  can  count  them  when  in 
such  constant  vibration  as  they  are  pretty  sure  to  be  when  in 
sight.  He  will  keep  perfectly  still  two  hours  at  a  time  (if 
you  are  not  attempting  to  take  his  picture),  then  fly  about 
wildly  for  two  or  three  minutes,  and  then  for  hours  remain 
immovable,  as  if  dead.  This  one  prefers  .to  stand  showing 
but  three  feet — two  on  one  side,  and  one  on  the  other — and 
no  coaxing  draws  out  the  shy  foot.  The  under  wings '  are 
kept  out  of  sight,  except  a  little  margin  in  front,  near  the 


82  INSECT  LIVES. 

head,  which  shows  a  small  crescent  of  faint  rose  color  below 
the  upper  wings.  The  antennae  of  the  female  moth  are 
simple,  like  a  little  strand  of  beads,  while  those  of  the  male 
are  spined,  being  larger,  as  are  those  of  all  male  moths.  The 
only  other  moth  of  this  kind  which  I  have  seen  went  into 
the  chrysalis  state  in  the  summer  (July  5, 1877),  and  came 
out  the  last  of  the  same  month  (July  27th),  perfecting  in  that 
time  the  work,  which — however  soon  completed,  in  the  fall 
caterpillar — remains  out  of  sight  nearly  half  a  year.  Harris, 
in  the  description  of  the  Rosy  Dryocampa,  says,  "  The  cater- 
pillar is  unknown  to  me,"  and  I  have  not  seen  it  described 
elsewhere.  The  two  which  I  had  (one  of  which  I  watched 
through  the  change  into  the  chrysalis)  were  taken  from  be- 
neath the  maple  tree,  and  were  nearly  ready  for  their  change. 
They  do  not  spin  any  cocoon,  nor  attach  themselves  to  the 
glass  (like  the  caterpillar  of  the  Danais  and  also  of  the  As- 
terias,  and  others),  but  *work  off  the  caterpillar  skin — the 
chrysalis  first  appearing  of  rather  a  bright  green  or  yellowish 
color,  and  soon  becoming  quite  black. 

The  summer  chrysalis  would  move,  when  touched  (advanc- 
ing on  the  paper  with  a  peculiar  gliding  motion,  by  means 
of  the  toothed  edges  of  the  rings) ;  but  the  winter  one  was 
never  seen  to  move  a  hair's  breadth.  The  caterpillar  has 
twelve  rings,  is  a  pale  pea-green,  and  striped  lengthwise 
(which  gives  it  a  somewhat  checkered  appearance)  in  narrow 
stripes  of  a  little  deeper  shade  of  green.  The  head  is  a 


THE  ROSY  DRYOCAMPA. 


83 


FIG.  42. 


FIG.  41. 


russet-brown  color,  and  there  are  two  soft  black  horns  on  the 
second  ring  about  one-third  of  an  inch  in  length.  The  under 
side  of  the  two  rings  before  the  last  are  a  purplish-brown, 
edged  all  along  with  short,  black  spines.  There  are  a  few 
short,  black  spines  on  the  last  two  rings,  and  the  V-shaped 
tail  is  edged  also  with  a  border  of  them,  as  also  is  a  line 
along  each  side  of  the  body.  There  are  minute  black  warts 
symmetrically  arranged  about  each  ring,  about  five  on  each. 
It  is  curious  to  compare  a  butterfly  or  caterpillar  either  with 
another  or  with  some  written  description,  and  notice  the  ex- 
actness of  repetition  in  spot,  spine,  and  marking  of  every 


84  INSECT  LIVES. 

sort.  In  writing  as  minute  a  description  of  a  certain  cater- 
pillar as  could  be  given  from  counting  both  spots  and  spines,  I 
was  pleased  to  find  afterward  a  printed  description  answering 
count  for  count.  There  is  not  always  the  same  similarity  in 
their  cocoons,  as  they  will  accommodate  themselves  to  circum- 
stances rather  than  give  up  the  idea  of  building  their  home. 
The  Polyphemus  will  always  draw  leaves  together  in  a  grace- 
ful manner  about  his  cocoon ;  but  one,  from  whom  I  took  his- 
supply  of  leaves,  when  about  to  spin,  made  his  cocoon  with- 
out it.  It  is  true  he  was  the  only  one  of  several  which  I  had 
who  died  in  his  cocoon ;  whether  from  mortification  that  he- 
was  obliged  to  deviate  from  his  usual  plan,  I  never  learned^ 
But  the  chrysaiids  (except  from  some  malformation)  seem  to* 
be  as  exactly  similar  as  the  moths  and  caterpillars. 


THE  SATURNIA  JO 


85 


XV. 


THE    SATURNIA    TO. 


THE  handsome  Indian  yellow  moth,  Saturnia  lo,  was  one  I 
learned  backward.  Finding  a  beautiful  moth  of  this  kind  on 
a  fence  one  evening  at  twilight,  I  secured  him  with  delight, 


FIG.  43, 

lout  with  no  knowledge  of  his  name  or  from  what  sort  of 
chrysalis  or  caterpillar  he  had  come.  After  keeping  him 
some  days,  I  found  him  one  afternoon  apparently  dead. 


86  INSECT  LIVES. 

Touching  him,  or  moving  him  along  even,  with  a  pencil,  be- 
trayed no  sign  of  life,  and  he  was  carefully  placed  in  a  box 
containing  several  other  specimens.  While  reading  in  the 
same  room  that  evening,  I  was  startled  by  an  unusual  sound,, 
which,  as  I  was  alone,  was  a  little  annoying  at  first,  but  soon 
I  perceived  the  noise  came  from  the  direction  of  a  box  of 
moths!  And  sure  enough,  my  Saturnia  lo,  far  from  being 
dead,  had  taken  occasion  to  call  on  each  particular  moth  in 
the  collection  in  the  most  unceremonious  manner,  ascertain- 
ing to  its  entire  satisfaction,  if  not  to  mine,  that  none  of  the 
others  had  been  put  away  (not  to  say  buried)  alive.  Some  deli- 
cate wings  were  detached  from  poor  victims  unable  to  return 
this  unmercifully  swift  whisking  about ;  and  before  the  Io> 
could  be  safely  transferred  to  solitary  confinement,  he  had 
brought  confusion  out  of  order  in  the  most  undesirable  man- 
ner possible.  So  began  my  acquaintance  with  lo.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  following  August,  a  caterpillar  was  given 
me  by  a  friend,  of  a  kind  I  had  not  seen  before,  and  soon  I 
found  two  others  like  him.  They  were  between  two  and 
three  inches  long,  and  of  a  light  pea-green  color.  The  twelve 
rings  were  each  starred  with  a  cluster  of  green  spines,  tipped 
with  a  dark  purple,  looking  almost  black.  These  were  sharp 
and  thorn-like.  A  line  of  purple  brown  ran  along  the  lower 
part  of  each  side,  bordered  on  the  lower  edge  with  yellow. 
The  hinder  prop  feet  were  a  dark  brown ;  the  eight  middle 


THE  SATURNIA  IO. 


87 


feet  purplish,  with  a  brown  finish  at  the  bottom.  The  three 
pairs  of  true  feet  were  purple.  The  head  was  green  like  the 
body,  while  the  mouth  was  purple  like  the  feet.  The  first 
ring  was  so  completely  covered  with  spines  as  to  hide  his  head 


FIG.   44. 


entirely  when  bent  forward,  as  they  usually  were.  There 
were  six  sets  of  these  stars  on  each  ring,  except  the  last  two 
(and  five  on  each  of  those),  and  on  the  first  four  rings,  which 
have  on  each  side  an  extra  cluster  very  low  down. 

These  spines  are  very  stiff,  and  remind  one  of  porcupine 


88  INSECT  LIVES. 

quills.  The  purple-brown  line  along  the*  side,  which  begins 
at  the  fourth  ring,  bends  down  to  the  hinder  prop-foot,  leav- 
ing five  clusters  on  the  last  ring.  On  each  side  of  every  ring 
is  an  oblong  vertical  breathing  hole  (spiracle),  as  in  nearly  all 
larvae  ;  for  though  these  differ  in  number  and  some  other  re- 
spects in  different  caterpillars,  yet  their  arrangement  is  uni- 
formly symmetrical,  and  usually  each  segment  is  furnished 
with  a  pair.  Examined  with  a  microscope,  this  spiracle  has 
first  a  vertical  white  center  line,  around  which  is  an  oval  of 
brown,  and  this  again  bordered  by  an  outside  oval  of  jet  black. 
He  looked  like  a  moving  strip  of  star  moss.  He  refused 
clover,  dogwood,  and  elm,  all.  of  which  they  are  said  to  like, 
probably  because  when  taken  he  was  about  ready  to  become  a 
chrysalid.  There  are  in  each  star  about  thirty  spines.  Three 
shorter  ones  usually  in  the  center,  a  second  circle  about  these 
three,  and  again  a  third,  which  are  still  longer.  Some  of  the 
spines,  especially  in  front,  are  not  tipped  with  purple,  but  end 
in  delicate  long  hairs.  While  really  pretty,  they  are  a  formid- 
able looking  caterpillar,  and  the  sting  of  the  spine  is  said  to 
be  as  severe  as  that  of  a  nettle.  So  curious  a  caterpillar  was 
not  difficult  to  be  found  described,  and  I  soon  learned,  if  these 
went  safely  through  their  changes,  I  should  have  the  Saturnia 
lo  moths.  In  a  very  short  time  the  three  had  spun  their  co- 
coons and  retired  for  a  winter's  sleep.  Two  of  them  seemed 
to  strike  up  a  close  friendship  at  once.  While  the  third  went 


THE  SATURNIA  10.  80 

off  to  a  corner  of  the  box  and  spun  his  cocoon  independently, 
the  other  two  worked  closely  side  by 
side,  forming  a  twin  cocoon,  joined  to- 
gether entirely  on  one  side,  and  looking 
not  unlike  a  double  covered  cradle. 
This  being  a  new  departure  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  Polyphemus  cocoon,  with- 
out the  leaves  on  the  outside)  only  one 
of  the  pair  survived  the  experiment !  FIG.  46. 

On  the  last  day  of  winter  (February  28,  1878)  one  of  the 
covered  cradles  opened,  and  a  beautiful  female  moth  came 
out,  just  such  an  one  as  had  made  the  bustling  expedition 
among  the  box  of  specimens  in  the  fall.  On  the  third  of 
March  the  single  cocoon  opened,  and  a  male  Saturnia  lo 
.appeared.  It  is  of  a  deep  Indian  yellow,  with  the  fore  wings 
obliquely  marked  with  purplish  red,  and  a  number  of  spots 
on  each,  close  together,  near  the  middle  of  the  wing,  which 
have  been  thought  to  resemble  the  letters  A  II,  and  which, 
with  a  little  help  of  the  imagination,  do  look  more  like  those 
letters  than  any  thing  else.  His  mate  is  much  darker,  with 
less  of  the  yellow  and  more  of  the  "brown  and  purple.  In- 
stead of  the  letters  A  H,  there  is  a  three-scalloped  spot  of 
rich,  deep  brown,  edged  with  gray.  The  head  is  a  rich  snuff- 
brown,  very  velvety,  and  the  handsome,  velvety  feet  are  of 


90  INSECT  LIVES. 


FIG.  47. 

the  same  rich  color.     The  other  half  of  the  double  cocoon 
remained  unopened. 

After  writing  the  ahove,  it  was  my  curious  good  fortune  to 
find  seven  of  these  large  caterpillars  on  one  blade  of  Indian 
corn.  There  was  not  another  to  be  found  in  the  small  field, 
and  how  these  had  chanced  to  congregate  in  such  camp- 
meeting  array  was  a  mystery.  They  are  "  processionary " 
caterpillars,  and  although  I  had  read  this,  I  should  not  have 
realized  it  but  for  the  curious  sight  which  having  so  many  at 
once  afforded  me.  After  they  had  been  put  under  a  large 
glass,  it  was  a  new  and  amusing  sight  to  watch  them  march 
around  —  one  lengthened,  mossy  line  of  green,  all  touching 
one  another  and  walking  as  fast  as  if  quite  alone.  They 
preferred  the  green  leaves  of  the  corn  to  any  others 
which  they  are  said  to  like  and  will  eat.  One  after  another 
they  made  their  seven  cocoons,  and  lay  through  the  winter 
just  passed,  side  by  side,  a  little  hamlet  of  sleepers — houses 


THE  SATURNIA  10.  91 

so  still  and  apparently  unoccupied  as  to  have  suggested  a 
u  Deserted  Village, "  but  whose  occupants  I  knew  were  only 
waiting  to  surprise  me  on  some  coming  spring  morning  with 
a  regular  Chestnut  Street  parade. 

And  the  spring  opening  has  come.  Three  of  the  sleepers- 
have  left  their  black,  moveless,  chrysalid  homes.  One  has- 
lived  his  little  life,  and  two  rich,  brown,  and  purple  ones  are 
in  a  box  near  me  (March  31,  1879).  One  of  them  has  just 
made  a  pretty  picture  by  flying  upon  a  fresh,  light-green 
blade  of  Indian  corn  (planted  in  my  room  expressly  for  their 
pleasure),  almost,  but  not  quite,  too  frail,  in  its  own  forced  and 
tender  growth,  to  support  his  swinging  and  fluttering  little 
body.  The  corn  was  not  for  them  to  eat,  as  these  moths  may 
be  classed  among  the  tongueless  ones,  nor  could  they  get  any 
good  from  the  green  blades,  had  they  ever  so  long  a  tongue* 
But  if  it  were  June,  and  they  were  in  the  corn-field,  there 
they  would  deposit  their  eggs  for  the  future  star-moss  cater- 
pillars— more  than  two  dozen  of  which,  rather  large,  and  of 
a  clear,  golden  yellow,  are  now  in  a  box,  with  a  leaf  of  the 
corn  for  any  possible  coming  need. 

The  pupa  is  black  throughout,  so  that  there  is  no  change 
in  it  to  indicate  the  coming  of  the  moth,  as  is  the  case  in  so 
many  of  the  brown  or  other  lighter  colored  pupae.  The  rings, 
however,  become  a  little  wider  apart,  and  the  spaces  a  little 
clearer,  perhaps,  between  them.  The  end  of  the  pupar 
opposite  the  head,  when  looked  at  with  a  microscope,  is- 


92 


INSECT  LIVES. 


drawn  in  a  little  curiously,  reminding  oae  of  the  peculiarly 
pretty  bud  of  the  laurel  blossom. 

Another  cocoon  has  since  opened  (April  10, 1879),  and  a 
beautiful  lemon-yellow  and  variegated  male  lo  has  shaken 
out  his  beautiful  wings,  handsomer  in  his  light  spring  suit 
than  any  of  the  others. 


SILVER  GRA7. 


XVI. 

SILVER   GRAY. 

STANDING  on  the  heart  of  a  blush  rose,  with  his  richly- 
shaded,  silvery  wings  fluttering  over  its  soft  petals,  my 
Quinquemaculatum  moth  makes  a  fine  picture.  His  wings  are 
spread  just  enough  to  show  five  orange  spots  encircled  with 
black,  which  ornament  each  side  of  his  body  and  give  him 
his  name.  But  the  back  of  his  head,  between  the  shoulders, 
is  his  chief  beauty.  It  is  a  rich,  soft  gray,  curiously  and 
regularly  watered  with  black  and  white  wavy  lines.  Of  his 
six  legs  the  last  two  pair  are  branched  with  three  delicate 
spines.  The  eyes  are  very  large  and  velvety  black.  The  an- 
tennae are  not  feathered,  as  are  those  of  the  Polyphemus 
moth,  but  many-jointed,  tubular,  and  finely-pointed  at  the  tip. 

These  antennae  are  about  an  inch  in  length,  and  usually 
lie  back  close  to  the  side  of  the  body,  seeming  to  form  a 
corded  edge  to  the  upper  wings,  the  points  lying  just  under 
the  wing.  You  would  at  first  say  he  had  no  antennas ;  but 
watch  him  a  little,  and  they  will  soon  be  very  apparent.  The 
tongue  is  four  or  five  inches  in  length,  but  when  coiled,  looks 
like  a  small  wheel  set  between  two  feathery  side  pieces. 


INSECT  LIVES. 


SILVER  GRAY.  95 

When  freed  from  his  chrysalis,  his  first  care  seemed  to  be 
for  this  long,  slender  tongue,  which  had  been  so  specially 
•cared  for,  during  the  chrysalis  state,  in  its  curious,  pitcher- 
handle  sheath.  He  unrolled  and  shook  it  again  and  again, 
•curling  and  smoothing  it  as  a  child  would  a  dandelion  stem, 
and  then  reaching  up,  touched  the  top  of  the  glass  box 
(quite  a  high  one)  several  times.  Then  he  coiled  it  up 
quickly,  and  that  was  the  last  seen  of  his  long  tongue,  ex- 
cept the  hint  of  it  in  wheel  form.  Although  tempted  by 
fragrant  flowers  and  sugared  moss,  he  would  not  be  induced 
to  uncoil  it  again.  A  "  greater  green  orchis,"  with  its  im- 
mensely long  nectary  of  sweets,  would  no  doubt  have  given 
him  an  opportunity  to  satisfy  his  hunger  in  a  becoming 
manner ;  but  no  such  flower  was  at  hand,  and  scorning  to 
use  so  remarkable  an  organ  upon  any  ordinary  repast,  he 
quietly  became  a  martyr  to  his  sense  of  propriety,  and  died 
from  hunger  in  the  midst  of  plenty.  And  what  is  this  dainty 
creature  ;  or,  rather,  what  was  he  ?  You  will  exclaim  when 
I  tell  you  he  was  the  revolting-looking,  large,  green  tomato 
worm. 


FIG.  49. 


96  INSECT  LIVES. 

Snappish  and  really  dangerous  in  that  form  —  requiring  to- 
be  taken  with  great  care  —  the  change  in  his  disposition 
seems  as  great  as  that  in  his  external  appearance.  Although 
he  does  not  equal  the  Polyphemus  in  gentleness  (and  I  have 
seen  no  moth  that  does),  still  he  is  timid  and  quiet;  although 
I  fancy  when  touched  there  is  a  trace  of  the  original  disposi- 
tion in  the  short,  quick  flutter  he  gives  in  response.  It  has 
not  been  an  easy  matter  to  secure  this  moth.  It  is  a  sphinx, 
and  like  all  this  class  the  caterpillar  buries  itself  in  the  earth 
to  go  into  the  chrysalis  form.  Several  large  specimens  of  the 
tomato  worm  were  caged  in  boxes,  upon  earth,  and  fed  with 
tomato  leaves.  In  due  time  they  all  disappeared  in  the  earth. 
The  same  curiosity  which  leads  children  to  take  up  seeds 
once  or  twice  to  see  if  they  have  sprouted,  led  to  several 
attempts  to  see  if  these  chrysalids  were  formed.  Though 
Nature  can  not  be  delayed,  neither  will  she  be  hurried. 

At  length,  all  the  earth  being  shaken  from  them,  two  large 
well  formed  chrysalids  appeared.     These  were  allowed  to  lie 


FIG.  50. 
upon  the  earth  all  winter.     They  showed  signs  of  life  until 


SILVER  GRAY.  97 

March,  when  they  shriveled  a  little,  and  would  no  longer 
move  when  touched.  They  are  now  "  hardened  cases,"  with 
no  hope  of  change. 

This  was  too  great  a  dissappointraent  to  bear  without  some 
attempt  at  remedy,  and  the  thought  was  suggested  of  dig- 
ging where  last  year's  tomatoes  had  grown,  to  see  if  any  un- 
watched  ones  had  survived.  The  gardener  soon  brought  two 
fine  chrysalids  to  light.  They  were  laid  on  boxes  of  earth 
in  the  empty  glass  case  which  the  others  had  occupied,  and 
Silver  Gray  broke  the  bands  of  one  of  these  yesterday.  The 
large  moth  made  its  exit  at  the  usual  place  between  the 
shoulders,  leaving  a  mere  parted  line  in  the  almost  un- 
broken chrysalis.  Even  the  long  tongue-sheath  was  not 
broken  or  loosened  from  the  breast.  These  two  chrysalids 
were  alike.  The  first  two  differed  only  in  the  tongue-case, 
one  having  the  pitcher-handled  case,  as  in  the  engraving, 
while  the  other  had  two  short,  straight  cases,  side  by  side. 

What  may  we  not  believe  possible  in  transformation,  when 
we  see  the  forbidding  tomato  worm,  after  a  dark  underground 
existence,  come  out  into  the  silvery  beauty  of  the  Quinque- 
maculatum  ? 

Shall  we  fear  "  the  dark  prison  of  a  tomb,"  since  the  same 
power  that  opens  the  chrysalis  rolls  the  stone  from  the  long 
sealed  sepulchre  ? 

FINIS. 


